AS   ILLUSTRATED 


from  Contemporary  Monuments 


A.H.SAYCE.  L 


BY-PATHS 

OF 

Bible  Knowledge 


The  Relicious  Tract  Society. 

56. Paternoster  Row  London. 


Ata.:1!11 


3fe*i§6 


«PM 


i!iiKiil« 


CLEOPATRA'S     NEEDLE.      With 

an    Exposition    of    the    Hiero- 
glyphics ..  2 

FRESH  LIGHT  FROM  THE 
ANCIENT  MONUMENTS.  By 
A.  H.  Sayce,  LL.D 3 

RECENT  DISCOVERIES  ON  THE 
TEMPLE  HILL  AT  JERUSALEM. 
By  the  Rev.  J.  King,  M.A.       ..     2 

BABYLONIAN  LIFE  &  HISTORY. 
By  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  M.A.     3 

GALILEE  IN  THE  TIME  OF 
CHRIST.  By  Selah  Merrill, 
U.U 2 

EGYPT  &  SYRIA.  Their  Physical 
Features  in  Relation  to  Bible 
History.  By  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson, 
F.R.S - 3 


s.  d. 


X* 


*nr 


ASSYRIA:  ITS  PRINCES,  PRIESTS, 
AND  PEOPLE.  By  A.  H.  Sayce, 
LL.D 

THE   DWELLERS  ON  THE  NILE. 

By  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  M.A. 

THE  DISEASES  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

By  Sir  J.  Risdon  Bennett,  M.D., 
F.R.S.,  Ex-President  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Physicians  ... 


'mmmm 


3  o  liHiui 


BfflirjM 


3    0 


2    6 


3 


HEBREW  PUB.HOUSE. 
BLOCHPUB.&P'T'GCO. 


V^    A  SPECIALTY.   6 
^0^^180-182^-^0. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OF 


William  Popper 


THE 
LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF    ISAIAH. 


HORACE    HART,    PRINTER    TO   THE   UNIVERSITY 


aSg=$at&s  of  23tble  Itnofolrtfge. 

XIII. 
THE 

LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  ISAIAH 


AS   ILLUSTRATED    BY    CONTEMPORARY 

MONUMENTS. 


BY 


A.    H.    SAYCE,    LL.D. 


author  of 

'  Fresh  Light  from  the  Monuments,' 

'The  Hittites,  or  the  Story  of  a  Forgotten  Empire.'  etc. 


Second   Edition 


THE  RELIGIOUS  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

56   PATERNOSTER   ROW,    65   ST.   PAUL'S   CHURCHYARD, 
AND    164   PICCADILLY. 

189O 


5ZO 


PREFACE. 


In  the  following  pages  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
bring  before  the  modern  reader  a  picture  of  the  external 
and  internal  politics  of  the  Jewish  kingdom  in  the  age 
of  Isaiah,  one  of  the  most  important  epochs  and  turning- 
points  in  the  religious  history  and  training  of  the  Chosen 
Race.  The  materials  for  drawing  such  a  picture  are 
derived  partly  from  the  Old  Testament,  partly  from 
the  monuments  of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  which  in  these 
our  days  have  thrown  so  vivid  and  unexpected  a  light 
upon  the  earlier  history  of  the  Bible.  Without  them, 
indeed,  the  present  book  could  never  have  been  written. 
It  is  with  their  assistance  that  the  pages  of  the  sacred 
record  have  been  supplemented  and  illustrated,  and 
the  course  of  events  which  seemed  such  a  puzzle  to 
the  scholars  of  a  former  generation  has  been  traced  in 
its  broad  outlines.  The  contemporaries  of  Isaiah  have 
ceased  to  be  mere  names  to  us,  and  have  become  living 
men  of  flesh  and  blood  ;  we  can  not  only  read  the  very 
words  of  Tiglath-pileser,  of  Sargon,  and  of  Sennacherib, 
but  even  handle  the  very  documents  which  they  caused 
to  be  inscribed.  We  can  sit  at  the  councils  of  the 
Assyrian  kings  and  follow  the  reasons  which  brought 


6  PREFACE. 

them  into  contact  with  the  rulers  of  Judah.  A  world 
which  had  seemed  hopelessly  past  and  dead  has  in  the 
good  providence  of  God  been  suddenly  quickened  into 
life. 

It  was  inevitable  that  in  this  reconstruction  of  the 
past  we  should  have  to  modify  or  renounce  many 
theories  and  interpretations  of  Holy  Writ  which  have 
long  prevailed  in  default  of  better  knowledge.  It  was 
so  when  modern  astronomy  swept  away  the  old  theory 
which  placed  the  earth  in  the  centre  of  the  universe  ; 
it  was  equally  so  when  geology  showed  that  the  earth 
was  far  older  than  had  hitherto  been  believed.  All  new 
knowledge  necessarily  obliges  us  to  correct  and  modify 
our  earlier  conceptions ;  and  nowhere  is  this  more  the 
case  than  in  the  domain  of  history,  where  too  often  the 
chain  of  events  that  has  been  preserved  for  us  consists 
only  of  a  few  broken  links. 

There  is  one  point  in  particular  in  which  the  in- 
scriptions of  Assyria  have  come  to  the  aid  of  the 
student  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  The  chrono- 
logy of  the  later  kings  of  Samaria  and  the  contemporary 
Kings  of  Judah  has  long  been  the  despair  of  the  historian. 
Rival  schemes  of  chronology  have  been  put  forward, 
each  claiming  to  be  the  only  accurate  or  possible  one. 
Interregna  have  been  invented  for  which  there  is  no 
warrant  in  the  Books  of  Kings,  and  texts  have  been 
combined  or  dissociated  from  one  another  according 
to  the  fancy  of  the  writer.  The  decipherment  of  the 
cuneiform  tablets  has  at  last  set  the  question  at  rest. 


PREFACE.  7 

The  Assyrians  kept  a  strict  chronological  register  by 
means  of  certain  officers  called  limmi  or  'eponymes.' 
The  eponyme  was  changed  each  year,  the  years  being 
named  after  the  several  eponymes  who  presided  over 
them.  Lists  of  these  eponymes  have  been  discovered, 
and  consequently  a  continuous  chronological  table  ex- 
ists which  extends  from  the  tenth  to  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  century  B.C.  The  date  of  a  king's  accession 
is  always  recorded,  and  in  some  of  the  lists  the  principal 
events  which  marked  the  years  are  mentioned.  As  the 
Assyrian  kings  were  careful  to  give  the  names  of  the 
eponymes  who  presided  over  the  different  years  in 
which  the  events  they  record  took  place,  we  can  now 
determine  exactly,  not  only  the  date  of  the  accession 
of  a  Tiglath-pileser  or  the  death  of  an  Esar-haddon, 
but  also  the  year  in  which  Sennacherib  invaded  Judah, 
or  Menahem  of  Samaria  paid  tribute  to  his  Assyrian 
lord. 

The  conquest  of  Judah  by  Sargon  ten  years  before 
the  invasion  of  Sennacherib  is  another  instance  of  the 
unexpected  light  which  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  have 
cast  upon  the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament.  The 
difficulties  presented  by  the  tenth  and  twenty-second 
chapters  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  have  been  removed,  as 
well  as  the  apparent  inconsistencies  in  the  account 
given  by  the  sacred  historian  of  the  campaign  of  Sen- 
nacherib against  Hezekiah.  A  full  discussion  of  this 
point,  however,  belongs  to  a  critical  introduction  to 
the  text  of  Isaiah  rather  than  to  a  description  of  the 


8  PREFACE. 

age  in  which  the  prophet  lived,  and  those  who  wish 
to  study  it  may  do  so  in  Canon  Cheyne's  well-known 
Commentary  upon  Isaiah.  But  the  present  work  will 
show  how  important  the  historical  fact  is  to  a  full 
understanding  of  the  political  circumstances  of  Heze- 
kiah's  reign. 

Unfortunately  the  annals  of  Sargon  have  reached  us 
in  too  imperfect  a  state  to  furnish  us  with  the  details 
of  his  campaign  in  Judah.  Future  excavations  in  As- 
syria may  fill  up  the  imperfections  of  the  record,  and 
allow  us  to  trace  the  march  of  the  Assyrian  army 
towards  the  gates  of  Jerusalem.  Meanwhile  we  must 
be  grateful  for  what  the  discoveries  and  research  of 
the  nineteenth  century  have  already  given  us.  All 
good  and  perfect  gifts  come  to  us  from  the  Father 
of  Lights,  and  not  the  least  has  been  the  resurrection 
of  that  ancient  Oriental  world  in  the  midst  of  which 
the  Jewish  Church  was  being  prepared  and  fitted  for 
the  day  when  the  true  Light  should  come  into  the 
world  and  tabernacle  among  us. 

A.  H.  Sayce. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Chronology 10 

Chapter     I.    The  Life  of  Isaiah 13 

Chapter    II.     Egypt  in  the  Age  of  Isaiah    ....  21 

Chapter  III.    Assyria 4° 

Chapter   IV.    Syria  and  Israel 67 

Chapter    V.    Political  Parties  in  Judah     .        .  7S 

Appendix  : 

I.    Translations  from  the  fragments  of  Tiglath- 

pileser's  Annals 92 

II.    Translations  from  the  Inscriptions  of  Sargon  92 

III.    Translation  of  Sennacherib's  account  of  his 

Campaign  against  Judah 93 

Index 95 

List  of  Scripture  References  .......  96 


CHRONOLOGY. 


B.C. 

756.  Jotham  made  regent  along  with  his  father  Uzziah. 
745.  April.     Pul  usurps  the  Assyrian  throne,  taking 

the  title  of  Tigiath-pileser  III. 
742.  Uzziah  sends  help  to  Hamath  ;  death  of  Uzziah. 
741.  Death  of  Jotham  and  accession  of  Ahaz. 
738.  Tribute  paid  to  the  Assyrians  by  Menahem  and 

Rezon. 
734.  Damascus  besieged  ;  the  tribes  beyond  the  Jordan 

carried  away  ;  Jehoahaz  or  Ahaz   becomes  an 

Assyrian  vassal. 
732.  Damascus  captured  ;  Rezon  put  to  death  ;  Ahaz 

at  Damascus. 
730.  Pekah  put  to  death  and  succeeded  by  Hoshea. 
727.  Tigiath-pileser  succeeded   by  Shalmancser  IV, 

and  Ahaz  by  Hezekiah. 
722.  Sargon  seizes  the  throne  and  captures  Samaria. 
721.  Merodach-baladan  conquers  Babylon. 
712-11.  Embassy  of  Merodach-baladan  to  Hezekiah. 
711.  Conquest  of  Judah  and  Ashdod  by  Sargon. 
710.  Conquest  of  Babylonia  by  Sargon. 
705.  Sargon    murdered    and    succeeded    by   his    son 

Sennacherib. 
701.  Sennacherib's  campaign  against  Judah  ;  battle  of 

Eltekeh  ;  retreat  of  the  Assyrians. 
697.  Death  of  Hezekiah  and  accession  of  his  son  Ma- 

nasseh. 
681.  Sennacherib  murdered  and  succeeded  by  his  son 

Esar-haddon. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  LIFE   OF   ISAIAH. 

AMONG  all  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  there 
is  none  who  holds  a  more  prominent  place  than  Isaiah, 
the  son  of  Amoz.  It  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  died 
with  the  Gospel  on  his  lips.  Nowhere  can  we  find  the 
promise  of  the  Messiah  more  clearly  announced ;  nowhere 
is  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah  depicted  in  colours  more- 
lifelike  and  abiding.  The  prophetic  vision  of  Isaiah  is 
not  restricted  by  the  narrow  limits  of  his  age  and  country; 
he  sees  the  Church  of  Christ  rising  before  him  and  uniting 
in  one  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile.  The  day  should  come, 
he  declared,  when  Egypt  and  Assyria,  the  representatives 
of  the  unbelieving  powers  of  the  world,  should  join  with 
Israel  in  adoring  the  one  true  God,  when  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  should  say  of  them, '  Blessed  be  Egypt  My  people, 
and  Assyria  the  work  of  My  hands.'  The  prophecies  of 
Isaiah  form,  as  it  were,  a  bridge  between  the  Old  Covenant 
and  the  New. 

But  there  are  other  respects  besides  this  in  which 
Isaiah  occupies  a  foremost  place  among  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  The  old  times  were  passing  away,  when  the 
prophet  appealed  to  the  eye  rather  than  to  the  ear  and  the 
mind.  The  symbolical  actions  through  which  the  will 
of  God  was  made  known  to  His  people  were  replaced  by 
solemn  warnings,  or  promises  of  forgiveness.  It  is  true 
that  the  glowing  words  of  the  prophet  might  still  at 


14  THE  LIFE   OF  ISAIAH. 

times  be  accompanied  by  some  visible  action,  as  when 
Isaiah  '  walked  naked  and  barefoot  three  years  for  a  sign 
and  wonder  upon  Egypt  and  upon  Ethiopia ; '  but  such 
visible  actions  were  accompaniments  only,  and  tended  to 
disappear  altogether.  The  prophet  became  in  very  truth 
a  prophetes  or  '  announcer '  of  the  will  of  God  to  man. 
The  miracles,  by  which  an  Elijah  or  an  Elisha  had  attested 
their  power  and  the  truth  of  their  mission,  made  way  for 
the  more  spiritual  testimony  of  prophecy  itself.  The 
range  of  the  prophet's  vision  was  no  longer  confined  to 
his  own  nation  and  people ;  the  message  he  delivered 
was  addressed  to  other'nations  as  well.  In  Isaiah,  there- 
fore, we  see  prophecy  increasing  in  evangelical  clearness, 
in  spirituality,  and  in  catholicity.  It  embraces  all  men, 
not  the  chosen  people  only,  and  promises  to  Jew  and 
Gentile  alike  the  blessings  of  the  Messianic  kingdom. 

Isaiah  himself  held  a  position  suitable  to  the  message 
he  was  commissioned  to  announce.  He  was  not  an  un- 
taught man  like  Amos,  who  had  been  taken  by  the  Lord 
while  following  the  flock  (Am.  vii.  14, 15),  but  an  educated 
student  from  the  prophetic  schools,  whose  prophecies 
show  full  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  the  past, 
and  who  shared  in  that  revival  of  culture  and  learning 
which  seems  to  have  marked  the  reign  of  Hezekiah. 
Nay,  more  than  this.  He  was  the  councillor  and  adviser 
of  kings,  a  statesman  who  took  a  keen  interest  in  the 
politics  of  his  day,  and  to  whose  efforts,  under  divine 
instruction,  Jerusalem  was  indebted  for  the  successful 
defence  it  made  against  the  armies  of  Sennacherib. 
During  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  at  any  rate,  Isaiah  was 
held  in  high  honour;  the  policy  he  had  urged  was  proved 
by  events  to  be  the  only  right  one,  and  Judah  for  a  while 
seemed  willing  to  walk  in  the  path  of  reformation. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ISAIAH.  15 

His  lot  was  happier  than  that  which  fell  usually  to  the 
Hebrew  prophet.  He  was  not  called  upon  to  see  his 
threatenings  and  remonstrances  wholly  thrown  away  and 
neglected,  or  his  countrymen  blindly  rushing  upon  the 
doom  of  which  they  were  warned  in  vain ;  on  the  contrary, 
the  reforms  of  Hezekiah  gave  practical  effect  to  Isaiah's 
preaching,  and  after  the  lesson  taught  by  the  invasion  and 
overthrow  of  Sennacherib  that  policy  of  'rest'  and  de- 
pendence on  God,  which  he  had  so  long  proclaimed1,  seems 
to  have  prevailed  up  to  the  time  of  Hezekiah's  death. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  influence  he  exercised  upon 
his  contemporaries,  our  knowledge  of  Isaiahs  life  is 
derived  for  the  most  part  from  his  own  works.  It  is 
true  that  he  comes  before  us  in  the  Book  of  Kings  as  the 
councillor  to  whom  the  Jewish  monarch  and  his  ministers 
betook  themselves  in  their  hour  of  need,  as  the  prophet 
who  was  empowered  to  promise  them  a  speedy  deliver- 
ance, as  the  healer  who  restored  Hezekiah  to  life  when 
all  earthly  hope  of  recovery  seemed  gone,  and  finally  as 
the  stern  reprover  of  the  monarch's  pride  and  worldliness. 
But  the  passages  in  which  Isaiah  is  thus  brought  before 
us  are  found  also  in  the  book  that  bears  his  name :  the 
only  additional  information  we  receive  is  the  record  in  the 
Second  Book  of  Chronicles  (xxxii.  32)  that  '  the  rest  of 
the  acts  of  Hezekiah,  and  his  goodness,  behold,  they  are 
written  in  the  vision  of  Isaiah  the  prophet,  the  son  of 
Amoz.' 

The  name  of  his  father  Amoz  has  been  associated  by 
Rabbinical  ingenuity  with  that  of  the  Jewish  king  Amaziah, 
whose  brother  he  is  supposed  to  have  been.  But,  apart 
from  chronological  difficulties,  it  does  not  seem  probable 
that  Isaiah  was  closely  connected  with  the  royal  family. 

1  Is.  XXX.  15. 


1 6  THE  LIFE   OF  ISAIAH. 

In  2  Kings  xx.  4  it  is  stated  that  when  Isaiah  left  the 
royal  palace  to  return  to  his  own  house  '  he  went  out  of 
the  middle  city,'  though  the  Authorised  Version  gives  a 
different  sense  to  the  Hebrew  words.  As  the  palace 
stood  between  the  temple  on  Mount  Moriah  and  the 
lower  city,  in  which  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  dwelt,  we  may  conclude  that  his  course  lay 
towards  the  lower  and  not  the  upper  town,  and  that  here 
he  lived  among  the  ordinary  citizens  of  Jerusalem.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  point  out  the  further  improbability  that 
two  brothers  should  have  borne  what  is  practically  the 
same  name,  Amoz  '(He  is)  strong,'  and  Amaziah  'The 
Lord  (is)  strong.'  If  we  are  to  connect  the  names  at  all, 
we  must  make  them  one  and  the  same1. 

Isaiah's  own  name  signifies  '  The  salvation  of  the  Lord.' 
It  was  thus,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  that  he  was  a  '  sign 
and  wonder  in  Israel  from  the  Lord  of  Hosts,'  like  his 
children,  whose  names  were  equally  ever-present  witnesses 
of  the  prophecies  he  had  uttered  2.  The  constant  burden 
of  his  preaching  had  been  that  though  the  heathen  should 
rage  for  awhile  against  Judah,  though  the  tree  of  the 
chosen  people  should  be  felled  to  the  root,  God  would 
yet  have  mercy  upon  it ;  the  root  should  again  put  forth 
its  shoots,  'a  remnant'  should  return  and  behold  the 
'salvation  of  the  Lord3.'  His  own  name  was  as  surely 
a  token  of  forgiveness  to  repentant  Judah  as  was  the 
name  of  his  son  Shear-jashub,  '  a  remnant  shall  return.' 

Shear-jashub  was  perhaps  the  eldest  of  his  children. 
He  was,  at  all  events,  old  enough  to  accompany  his  father 
when  he  went  out  of  the  city  to  meet  Ahaz,  who  was 

1  A  Hebrew  seal  inscribed  with  characters  of  earlier  date  than  the  period 
of  the  Exile,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Grant  of  Cairo,  contains  the 
name  of  'Amoz  the  sciibe.' 

a  Is.  viii.  18.  3  Is.  vi.  13,  x.  20-22,  xii.  2,  xxvi.  1. 


THE  LIFE   OF  ISAIAH.  1 7 

examining  '  the  conduit  of  the  upper  pool '  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Syro-Ephraimitic  war l.  At  a  later  date  was 
born  Maher-shalal-hash-baz,  '  spoil  swiftly,  rob  quickly.' 
These  were  the  words  Isaiah  had  been  ordered  to  write 
on  a  '  large  slab,'  with  '  the  graving-tool  of  the  people ' 
(Is.  viii,  1),  so  that  all  might  see  and  read,  and  then  to 
give  them  as  a  name  to  the  child  that  was  born  to 
him  shortly  afterwards.  The  name,  like  the  inscription, 
was  to  be  a  sign  that  '  before  the  child  shall  have  know- 
ledge to  cry,  My  father,  and  my  mother,  the  riches  of 
Damascus  and  the  spoil  of  Samaria  shall  be  taken  away 
before  the  king  of  Assyria.' 

The  wife  of  Isaiah  is  termed  '  the  prophetess.'  From 
this  we  must  infer  that  she  also,  like  her  husband,  was 
endowed  with  the  gift  of  prophecy.  The  usage  of  Hebrew 
would  not  allow  us  to  interpret  the  title  as  we  might 
perhaps  in  English,  where  it  could  signify  simply  a 
prophet's  wife. 

Isaiah  seems  to  have  lived  to  a  fair  old  age.  The 
superscription  of  his  prophecies  tells  us  that  he  saw 
his  'vision  concerning  Judah  and  Jerusalem  in  the  days 
of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and  Hezekiah.'  The  late 
Jewish  legend,  accordingly,  which  maintained  that  he 
had  been  sawn  asunder  by  Manasseh,  must  be  rejected. 
Such  a  mode  of  death  was  of  Persian  invention,  while  the 
legend  runs  counter  to  the  plain  sense  of  the  superscrip- 
tion. We  may  feel  assured  that  Isaiah  was  spared  the 
pain  of  witnessing  the  overthrow  of  Hezekiah's  reforms 
and  the  idolatries  of  Manasseh's  reign.  The  '  vision '  or 
revelation  vouchsafed  to  him  did  not  extend  beyond 
Hezekiah's  lifetime;  the  prophet,  it  would  seem,  had 
passed  away  before  the  godless  son  had  succeeded  to 

1  Is.  vii.  3. 
B 


1 8  THE  LIFE  OF  ISAIAH. 

his  father's  throne.  His  ministry  had  lasted  through 
the  reigns  of  four  Jewish  kings,  beginning,  as  we  may 
infer,  from  the  words  of  vi.  i,  'in  the  year  that  king 
Uzziah  died.' 
f  The  chronology  of  this  period  of  Jewish  history,  so 
long  the  despair  of  chronologists,  has  now  been  settled 
by  the  help  of  the  Assyrian  records.  It  was  in  B.C.  742 
that  Azariah  or  Uzziah,  according  to  the  Assyrian  king, 
Tiglath-pileser  III,  encouraged  the  people  of  Hamath  to 
resist  the  Assyrian  monarch  ;  in  B.C.  734  Tiglath-pileser 
received  the  tribute  and  submission  of  Ahaz,  and  in 
B.C.  701  Sennacherib  made  his  attack  upon  Hezekiah 
which  ended  so  fatally  for  the  invading  host.  We  may 
therefore  conclude  that  Isaiah's  public  ministry  extended 
over  a  period  of  between  forty  and  fifty  years,  and  if  he 
were  more  than  twenty  years  of  age  when  he  was  conse- 
crated to  it,  he  would  have  been  past  sixty  when  he  laid 
it  down.  Such  a  length  of  life  does  not,  it  is  true,  seem 
very  great  to  us  in  these  days  of  advanced  medical 
knowledge  and  sanitary  arrangements,  but  it  was  beyond 
the  average  age  of  Isaiah's  contemporaries.  Ahaz  was 
only  thirty- six  when  he  died,  Hezekiah  fifty-four,  and 
the  90th  Psalm  tells  us  that  '  the  days  of  our  years  are 
threescore  years  and  ten.'  If  Isaiah  was  sixty-five  when 
he  died,  he  would  already  have  been  looked  upon  as  an 
old  man. 

It  is  probable  that  Isaiah  published  his  prophecies  in 
separate  collections  or  volumes.  They  are  not  arranged 
in  chronological  order.  It  is  not  until  we  come  to  the 
sixth  chapter  that  we  read  the  account  of  his  appoint- 
ment to  his  prophetic  office.  It  has  been  supposed  that 
some  at  least  of  the  preceding  chapters  belong  to  the 
reign  of  Jotham.     The  first  chapter  forms  a  whole  by 


THE  LIFE  OF  ISAIAH.  10 

itself,  the  next  four  relate  to  the  same  subject— the 
calamities  that  await  Jerusalem  for  its  sins— and  are 
prefaced  by  a  quotation  from  some  older  prophet  which 
begins  with  the  conjunction  'and'  (ii.  2,  comp.  Mic.  iv.  i). 
The  prophecies  against  foreign  nations  are  grouped 
together  by  the  common  '  burden'  with  which  they  begin, 
just  as  a  later  series  of  prophecies  (xxviii-xxxiii.)  are 
connected  by  the  denunciation  of  'woe'  by  which  they 
are  prefaced.  It  is  possible  that  the  historical  chapters 
(xxxvi-xxxix.)  are  an  extract  from  '  the  vision,'  which, 
as  we  learn  from  the  Books  of  Chronicles,  embodied  the 
history  of  Hezekiah  ;  though  here  again,  as  we  shall  see 
later  on,  there  is  no  chronological  arrangement,  the  account 
of  Sennacherib's  invasion,  which  took  place  ten  years  after 
the  embassy  of  Merodach-Baladan,  being  narrated  first. 
Many  of  the  prophecies  were  delivered  orally  before 
they  were  committed  to  writing,  but  others,  such  as  those 
directed  against  foreign  nations,  must  have  been  written 
down  from  the  first.  The  prophet  would  have  used  a 
scroll  of  leather  or  papyrus,  and  the  limits  of  each  collec- 
tion of  his  prophecies  would  have  been  determined  by 
the  size  of  the  scroll.  We  may  suppose  that  in  successive 
editions  of  them  he  united  these  collections  together,  until 
finally  the  book  was  formed,  such  as  we  now  have  it.  In 
arranging  the  several  collections,  regard  was  had  to  the 
subject-matter  of  each  rather  than  to  their  strict  chrono- 
logical order ;  hence  it  is  that  the  history  of  Isaiah's 
consecration  to  the  prophetic  office  is  not  placed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  book,  and  that  prophecies  like  that  upon 
Egypt,  which  belongs  to  the  later  portion  of  the  prophet's 
life,  precede  the  account  of  the  sign  given  '  in  the  year 
when  the  Tartan'  or  commander-in-chief  of  Sargon  came 
against  Ashdod  in  711  B.C. 

B  2 


20  THE  LIFE   OF  ISAIAH. 

The  selections  made  from  the  history  of  Hezekiah's 
reign,  which  are  incorporated  into  the  volume  of  pro- 
phecies, owe  their  position  in  it  to  the  fact  that  they 
contain  the  predictions  and  words  of  Isaiah.  The  in- 
vasion of  Judah  by  Sennacherib  led  to  the  prophecy  in 
which  the  Lord  declared  that  He  would  humble  the 
insolent  pride  of  the  Assyrian  monarch,  and  would  defend 
His  city  of  Jerusalem  ;  while  the  account  of  Hezekiah's 
sickness  and  of  the  Babylonian  embassy  embody  the 
promise  made  through  Isaiah  that  God  would  deliver 
Jerusalem  out  of  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Assyria,  as  well 
as  the  prediction  that  the  day  would  come  when  the 
treasures  of  the  royal  palace  would  be  carried  away  to 
Babylon.  However  much  we  may  regret  that  the  rest 
of  the  history  of  Hezekiah  has  been  lost,  it  is  clear  that 
no  other  prophecies  of  Isaiah  were  contained  in  it.  Had 
they  been  so,  they  would  have  been  included  in  '  the 
vision  of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz.' 


CHAPTER   II. 

EGYPT  IN   THE  AGE   OF   ISAIAH. 

The  life  of  Isaiah  fell  in  an  age  which  was  a  mo- 
mentous one  for  the  kingdom  of  Judah.  Judah  had 
become  the  battle-ground  of  the  two  great  powers  of  the 
ancient  world,  Assyria  and  Egypt.  While  Isaiah  was 
still  a  boy,  Assyria  had  suddenly  awakened  to  new  life 
and  energy,  and  had  begun  to  push  its  conquests  towards 
the  west.  Syria,  and  even  the  northern  kingdom  of  Israel, 
had  been  swept  away,  and  Judah  found  itself  face  to  face 
with  a  seemingly  irresistible  empire.  To  the  south,  the 
desert,  into  which  the  fertile  plains  of  Southern  Judaea  im- 
perceptibly passed,  touched  upon  the  borders  of  Egypt. 
Like  the  iron  upon  the  anvil,  therefore,  Judah  lay  between 
two  hostile  forces,  one  of  which  was  burning  with  the 
youthful  fires  of  enterprise  and  lust  of  conquest,  while  the 
other  still  remembered  its  former  glories  and  the  empire 
it  had  wielded  in  Asia. 

For  Egypt  had  once  been  mistress,  not  only  of  Pales- 
tine, but  of  Northern  Syria  also  as  far  as  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Gulf  of  Antioch.  This  was  in  the  far-off  days 
when  as  yet  the  Israelites  had  not  entered  the  pro- 
mised land,  when  they  were  still  groaning  under  the 
Egyptian  oppressor.  But  the  oppression  had  been  fear- 
fully avenged.  Hardly  had  Ramses  II,  the  Pharaoh  of 
the  Oppression,  died,  when  the  empire  he  had  founded 
passed  away.    Egypt  was  herself  attacked  by  the  enemy, 


22  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

and  while  rival  princes  were  founding  dynasties  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country,  the  cities  were  sacked  and 
burned  by  savage  marauders,  and  the  people  were  com- 
pelled to  bow  the  neck  to  kings  of  foreign  race.  For  a 
time,  indeed,  under  Shishak  I,  the  despoiler  of  Jerusalem 
(i  Kings  xiv.  25),  the  Egyptian  armies  went  forth  again 
to  conquer ;  but  Shishak  himself  was  not  an  Egyptian 
by  birth,  and  the  line  of  sovereigns  he  founded  soon  be- 
came as  feeble  as  the  dynasties  that  had  preceded  them. 
By  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  the  land  was 
once  more  divided  among  a  number  of  hostile  princes 
whose  power  did  not  extend  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
cities  in  which  they  had  established  themselves.  Their 
petty  jealousies  and  constant  quarrels  opened  the  road 
to  the  invader ;  then,  as  now,  the  weakness  of  Egypt  was 
the  opportunity  of  the  tribes  of  the  south  ;  and  Ethiopian 
armies  marched  out" of  the  Soudan,  to  burn,  to  slay,  and 
to  plunder. 

An  end  was  put  to  this  condition  of  things  by  the 
Ethiopian  king  Shabaka,  or  Sabako.  He  is  the  So  of 
the  Old  Testament  (2  Kings  xvii.  4),  whom  Hoshea  had 
bribed  to  help  him  against  the  Assyrian  monarch.  But 
before  that  help  could  be  sent  the  Assyrian  had  de- 
scended on  his  rebellious  vassal,  whom  he  dethroned  and 
imprisoned.  Now,  as  ever,  the  Egyptian  had  proved  to 
be  a  '  bruised  reed'  to  those  who  trusted  in  him. 

Sabako,  in  fact,  was  too  much  engaged  in  consolidating 
his  power  in  Egypt  to  think  of  foreign  conquests.  He 
had  overthrown  the  representative  of  the  Egyptian  royal 
family,  and,  if  we  may  believe  the  statement  of  a  classical 
writer,  had  burned  him  alive.  It  took  him  some  time  to 
put  down  the  various  princes  who  claimed  sovereignty 
over  different  parts  of  Egypt,  to  crush  all  opposition  to 


EGYPT  IN  THE   AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  23 

himself  among  the  Egyptian  people,  and  to  weld  together 
his  Egyptian  and  Ethiopian  possessions.  The  task  was 
rendered  easier  by  the  fact  that  Sabako,  though  king  of 
Ethiopia  and  leader  of  the  Ethiopian  forces,  was  not 
altogether  of  Ethiopian  blood.  He  claimed  descent  from 
the  ancient  royal  line  of  Egypt.  When  the  feeble  suc- 
cessors of  the  great  Ramses  had  allowed  the  provinces 
of  the  Soudan  to  be  torn  from  their  grasp,  and  the  high- 
priests  of  the  god  of  Thebes  eventually  to  dispossess 
them  of  the  throne,  some  of  their  descendants  had  fled 
to  the  south,  and  there  at  Napita,  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Holy  Mountain,  the  modern  Gebel  Barkal,  had 
established  a  kingdom  which  was  in  all  respects  the 
counterpart  of  the  old  kingdom  of  Egypt.  Not  only 
were  the  sovereigns  themselves  Egyptians,  their  court 
was  Egyptian  also,  speaking  the  Egyptian  language,  and 
following  Egyptian  customs.  By  degrees,  however,  the 
influence  of  the  land  over  which  they  ruled  began  to 
make  itself  felt.  The  kings  and  nobles  of  Meroe  be- 
came less  and  less  Egyptian  in  blood,  in  language,  and 
in  manners.  In  the  age  of  Sabako,  nevertheless,  the 
Egyptian  element  was  still  strong,  and  it  was  conse- 
quently not  difficult  for  him  to  assume  the  character  of 
an  Egyptian  monarch,  or  for  the  Egyptian  people  to 
regard  him  as  one  of  themselves. 

Under  Sabako  and  his  successors,  therefore,  the 
Egyptians  and  the  Ethiopians  were  under  the  same 
sceptre,  and  looked  upon  themselves  as  a  single  nation. 
Hence  it  is  that  '  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,'  in  whom, 
according  to  the  Assyrian  Rab-shakeh,  Hezekiah  put 
his  confidence,  is  described  later  on  as  'Tirhakah,  king 
of  Ethiopia x ' ;  hence  too  it  is  that  Isaiah  declares  that 

1  Is.  xxxvi.  6,  xxxvii.  9. 


24  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

the  Assyrian  king  shall  '  lead  away  the  Egyptians 
prisoners,  and  the  Ethiopians  captives,' and  that  the  Jewish 
people  shall  '  be  ashamed  of  Ethiopia  their  expectation, 
and  of  Egypt  their  glory1.'  But  with  all  this  fusion  of 
the  two  populations  the  position  of  Sabako  was  by  no 
means  secure.  The  Egyptians,  more  especially  the 
aristocratic  portion  of  them,  could  not  forget  that  he  was 
a  foreigner  and  a  conqueror,  even  though  he  might  trace 
his  lineage  from  their  own  ancient  race  of  kings.  He 
was  therefore  necessarily  prevented  from  pursuing  a 
policy  of  foreign  conquest ;  his  energies  were  fully 
employed  in  stamping  out  the  seeds  of  disaffection  at 
home,  and  he  could  waste  neither  men  nor  time  in 
invasions  of  Asia.  He  might  receive  the  presents  sent 
by  Hoshea,  but  he  was  not  in  any  hurry  to  make  the 
return  Hoshea  expected. 

Before  his  death,  however,  he  was  forced  to  cross  arms 
with  the  Assyrians.  The  Assyrian  king  did  not  forget 
that  the  rebels  of  Israel  and  Hamath  had  been  encouraged 
by  promises  of  support  from  Egypt.  In  B.C.  720, 
accordingly,  after  the  fall  of  Samaria,  Sargon,  the 
Assyrian  monarch,  led  his  forces  to  the  south  of  Judah, 
and  at  Raphia,  on  the  road  to  Egypt,  met  the  allied 
army  of  Sabako  and  the  Philistines  of  Gaza.  The 
Assyrians  gained  a  complete  victory,  the  result  of  which 
was  the  capture  of  Gaza,  and  the  end  of  all  Egyptian 
interference  for  awhile  in  the  affairs  of  Palestine.  In 
15. C.  711,  it  is  true,  when  a  revolt  had  broken  out  there 
against  the  Assyrians,  the  rebels  believed  that  they 
would  be  assisted  by  the  Egyptian  monarch  ;  but  so  far 
was  this  from  being  the  case,  that  after  the  suppression 
of  the  revolt  '  the  king  of  Meroe'  delivered  up  to  Sargon 

1  Is.  xx.  4,  5. 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  1$ 

one  of  the  leaders  of  the  outbreak  who  had  fled  into 
Egypt. 

The  immediate  successor  of  Sabako  does  not  seem 
to  have  reigned  long  ;  at  any  rate,  he  continued  the  policy 
of  his  predecessor.  But  on  his  death,  Tirhakah  (Taharka), 
brother-in-law  of  Sabako.  came  to  the  throne,  and  soon 
entered  upon  a  new  line  of  action.  Whether  he  thought 
that  the  Ethiopian  domination  was  now  too  firmly 
established  in  Egypt  to  be  shaken,  or  that  it  was  necessary 
at  all  hazards  to  oppose  the  growing  power  of  Assyria, 
we  do  not  know  ;  certain  it  is  that  under  Tirhakah  the 
Egyptians  and  Ethiopians  once  more  began  to  turn  their 
eyes  to  Palestine,  and  to  intermeddle  with  its  politics. 

Assyria  had  suddenly  become  formidable.  The  king- 
doms of  Damascus  and  Samaria  had  been  destroyed 
and  placed  under  an  Assyrian  satrap ;  Phoenicia,  Judah, 
and  the  Philistines  paid  tribute  to  Nineveh ;  and  the 
authority  of  the  Assyrian  king  was  acknowledged  as  far 
south  as  the  frontiers  of  Egypt.  Between  Assyria  on 
the  one  side  and  Egypt  on  the  other,  the  little  kingdom  of 
Judah  alone  remained  in  a  semi-independent  state. 

The  almost  impregnable  fortress  of  Jerusalem,  which 
stood  within  it,  gave  it  an  importance  which  its  small 
size  and  want  of  resources  would  not  otherwise  have 
justified.  It  is  true  that  the  hostile  armies  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria  might  turn  the  flank  of  Jerusalem  by  marching 
along  the  sea-coast ;  but  as  long  as  such  a  fortress  was 
left  unoccupied  it  was  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for 
either  power  to  retain  a  firm  hold  on  the  country  north 
or  south.  An  Assyrian  army,  when  engaged  in  an  inva- 
sion of  Egypt,  might  always  be  attacked  in  the  rear  from 
Jerusalem,  while  an  Egyptian  army  which  had  reached 
Phoenicia    could    always    be    prevented   from    returning 


26  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE  OF  ISAIAH. 

home.  Only  by  the  possession  or  the  submission  of 
Jerusalem  could  the  Assyrians  feel  safe  when  attacking 
Egypt,  or  the  Egyptians  when  marching  northward 
towards  Syria  and  the  Euphrates.  The  power  which 
wished  to  dominate  over  Western  Asia  had  first  to  assure 
itself  of  the  help  or  neutrality  of  the  capital  of  Judah. 

Judah  was  consequently  in  the  position  of  Bulgaria  or 
Afghanistan  to-day.  It  formed  what  has  been  termed  '  a 
buffer-state,'  and  its  chances  of  safety  seemed  to  lie  in 
playing  Egypt  and  Assyria  off  one  against  the  other. 
Alternately  threatened  and  cajoled  by  the  two  great 
rival  powers  of  the  world,  its  statesmen  leaned  sometimes 
to  the  one,  sometimes  to  the  other.  Egypt  was  the 
nearest  at  hand,  and  its  ancient  prestige,  the  memory  of 
its  former  conquests  in  Palestine,  and  the  maritime 
intercourse  between  the  Delta  and  Joppa,  then  as  now 
the  port  of  Jerusalem,  appeared  to  point  it  out  as  the 
power  that  was  the  most  formidable,  and  therefore  most 
necessary  to  be  appeased.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Jews  could  not  forget  that  only  lately  Egypt  had  been 
in  a  condition  of  helplessness  and  anarchy,  and  that  even' 
now  it  was  governed  by  foreign  conquerors  ;  while  the 
rapid  advance  of  Assyria,  and  the  ease  with  which  the 
Assyrian  armies  had  swept  away  all  that  had  stood  in 
their  path,  made  the  name  of  the  Assyrian  king  a  name 
of  terror  to  every  inhabitant  of  Palestine. 

The  object  of  Tirhakah  was,  accordingly,  to  form  a 
league  against  Assyria  in  Palestine,  of  which  Jerusalem 
should  be  the  head. 

The  course  of  events  can  be  clearly  traced  from 
Isaiah  xxx.  and  Isaiah  xviii,  which  we  here  quote  in  full 
from  the  Revised  Version  : — 

Woe  to  the  rebellious  children,  saith  the  Lord,  that  take  counsel, 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  27 

but  not  of  Me  ;  and  that  cover  with  a  covering,  but  not  of  My  spirit, 
that  they  may  add  sin  to  sin  :  that  walk  to  go  down  into  Egypt, 
and  have  not  asked  at  My  mouth  ;  to  strengthen  themselves  in 
the  strength  of  Pharaoh,  and  to  trust  in  the  shadow  of  Egypt  ! 
Therefore  shall  the  strength  of  Pharaoh  be  your  shame,  and  the 
trust  in  the  shadow  of  Egypt  your  confusion.  For  his  princes  are 
at  Zoan,  and  his  ambassadors  are  come  to  Hanes.  They  shall  all 
be  ashamed  of  a  people  that  cannot  profit  them,  that  are  not  an 
help  nor  profit,  but  a  shame,  and  also  a  reproach. 

The  burden  of  the  beasts  of  the  South. 

Through  the  land  of  trouble  and  anguish,  from  whence  come 
the  lioness  and  the  lion,  the  viper  and  fiery  flying  serpent,  they 
carry  their  riches  upon  the  shoulders  of  young  asses,  and  their 
treasures  upon  the  bunches  of  camels,  to  a  people  that  shall  not 
profit  them.  For  Egypt  helpeth  in  vain,  and  to  no  purpose : 
therefore  have  I  called  her  Rahab  that  sitteth  still.  Now  go,  write 
it  before  them  on  a  tablet,  and  inscribe  it  in  a  book,  that  it  may 
be  for  the  time  to  come  for  ever  and  ever.  For  it  is  a  rebellious 
people,  lying  children,  children  that  will  not  hear  the  law  of  the 
Lord  :  which  say  to  the  seers,  See  not ;  and  to  the  prophets, 
Prophesy  not  unto  us  right  things,  speak  unto  us  smooth  things, 
prophesy  deceits  :  get  you  out  of  the  way,  turn  aside  out  of  the 
path,  cause  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  to  cease  from  before  us.  Where- 
fore thus  saith  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  Because  ye  despise  this 
word,  and  trust  in  oppression  and  perverseness,  and  stay  thereon ; 
therefore  this  iniquity  shall  be  to  you  as  a  breach  ready  to  fall, 
swelling  out  in  a  high  wall,  whose  breaking  cometh  suddenly  at  an 
instant.  And  he  shall  break  it  as  a  potter's  vessel  is  broken, 
breaking  it  in  pieces  without  sparing  ;  so  that  there  shall  not  be 
found  among  the  pieces  thereof  a  sherd  to  take  fire  from  the 
hearth,  or  to  take  water  withal  out  of  the  cistern.  For  thus  saith 
the  Lord  God,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  In  returning  and  rest  shall 
ye  be  saved  ;  in  quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength : 
and  ye  would  not.  But  ye  said,  No,  for  we  will  flee  upon  horses  ; 
therefore  shall  ye  flee  :  and,  We  will  ride  upon  the  swift ;  therefore 
shall  they  that  pursue  you  be  swift.  One  thousand  shall  flee  at 
the  rebuke  of  one ;  at  the  rebuke  of  five  shall  ye  flee :  till  ye  be 
left  as  a  beacon  upon  the  top  of  a  mountain,  and  as  an  ensign  on 
an  hill.     And  therefore  will  the  Lord  wait,  that  He  may  be  gracious 


28  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

unto  you,  and  therefore  will  He  be  exalted,  that  He  may  have  mercy 
upon  you  :  for  the  Lord  is  a  God  of  judgement;  blessed  are  all  they 
that  wait  for  Him. 

For  the  people  shall  dwell  in  Zion  at  Jerusalem  :  thou  shalt  weep 
no  more ;  He  will  surely  be  gracious  unto  thee  at  the  voice  of  thy 
cry ;  when  He  shall  hear,  He  will  answer  thee.  And  though  the 
Lord  give  you  the  bread  of  adversity  and  the  water  of  affliction,  yet 
shall  not  thy  teachers  be  hidden  any  more,  but  thine  eyes  shall  see 
thy  teachers  :  and  thine  ears  shall  hear  a  word  behind  thee,  saying, 
This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it ;  when  ye  turn  to  the  right  hand,  and 
when  ye  turn  to  the  left.  And  ye  shall  defile  the  over-laying  of  thy 
graven  images  of  silver,  and  the  plating  of  thy  molten  images  of 
gold  :  thou  shalt  cast  them  away  as  an  unclean  thing ;  thou  shalt 
say  unto  it,  Get  thee  hence.  And  He  shall  give  the  rain  of  thy 
seed,  that  thou  shalt  sow  the  ground  withal ;  and  bread  of  the 
increase  of  the  ground,  and  it  shall  be  fat  and  plenteous  :  in  that 
day  shall  thy  cattle  feed  in  large  pastures.  The  oxen  likewise  and 
the  young  asses  that  till  the  ground  shall  eat  savoury  provender, 
which  hath  been  winnowed  with  the  shovel  and  with  the  fan.  And 
there  shall  be  upon  every  lofty  mountain,  and  upon  every  high  hill, 
rivers  and  streams  of  waters,  in  the  day  of  the  great  slaughter,  when 
the  towers  fall.  Moreover  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be  as  the 
light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  shall  be  sevenfold,  as  the 
light  of  seven  days,  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  bindeth  up  the  hurt 
of  His  people,  and  healeth  the  stroke  of  their  wound. 

Behold,  the  name  of  the  Lord  cometh  from  far,  burning  with  His 
anger,  and  in  thick  rising  smoke  :  His  lips  are  full  of  indignation, 
and  His  tongue  is  as  a  devouring  fire  :  and  His  breath  is  as  an  over- 
flowing stream,  that  reacheth  even  unto  the  neck,  to  sift  the  nations 
with  the  sieve  of  vanity :  and  a  bridle  that  causeth  to  err  shall  be 
in  the  jaws  of  the  peoples.  Ye  shall  have  a  song  as  in  the  night 
when  a  holy  feast  is  kept ;  and  gladness  of  heart,  as  when  one 
goeth  with  a  pipe  to  come  into  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the 
Rock  of  Israel.  And  the  Lord  shall  cause  His  glorious  voice  to  be 
heard,  and  shall  shew  the  lighting  down  of  His  arm,  with  the  indig- 
nation of  His  anger,  and  the  flame  of  a  devouring  fire,  with  a  blast, 
and  tempest,  and  hailstones.  F*or  through  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
shall  the  Assyrian  be  broken  in  pieces,  which  smote  with  a  rod. 
And  every  stroke  of  the  appointed  staff,  which  the  Lord  shall  lay 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  20 

upon  him,  shall  be  with  tabrets  and  harps  :  and  in  battles  of 
shaking  will  He  fight  with  them.  For  a  Topheth  is  prepared  of 
old ;  yea,  for  the  king  it  is  made  ready ;  He  hath  made  it  deep  and 
large :  the  pile  thereof  is  fire  and  much  wood ;  the  breath  of  the 
Lord,  like  a  stream  of  brimstone,  doth  kindle  it. 

Ah,  the  land  of  the  rustling  of  wings,  which  is  beyond  the  rivers 
of  Ethiopia  :  that  sendeth  ambassadors  by  the  sea,  even  in  vessels 
of  papyrus  upon  the  waters,  saying,  Go,  ye  swift  messengers,  to  a 
nation  tall  and  smooth,  to  a  people  terrible  from  their  beginning 
onward  ;  a  nation  that  meteth  out  and  treadeth  down,  whose  land 
the  rivers  divide  !  All  ye  inhabitants  of  the  world,  and  ye  dwellers 
on  the  earth,  when  an  ensign  is  lifted  up  on  the  mountains,  see  ye; 
and  when  the  trumpet  is  blown,  hear  ye.  For  thus  hath  the  Lord 
said  unto  me,  I  will  be  still,  and  I  will  behold  in  My  dwelling-place  ; 
like  clear  heat  in  sunshine,  like  a  cloud  of  dew  in  the  heat  of 
harvest.  For  afore  the  harvest,  when  the  blossom  is  over,  and  the 
flower  becometh  a  ripening  grape,  He  shall  cut  off  the  sprigs  with 
pruning-hooks,  and  the  spreading  branches  shall  He  take  away  and 
cut  down.  They  shall  be  left  together  unto  the  ravenous  birds  of 
the  mountains,  and  to  the  beasts  of  the  earth :  and  the  ravenous 
birds  shall  summer  upon  them,  and  all  the  beasts  of  the  earth  shall 
winter  upon  them.  In  that  time  shall  a  present  be  brought  unto 
the  Lord  of  hosts  of  a  people  tall  and  smooth,  and  from  a  people 
terrible  from  their  beginning  onward  ;  a  nation  that  meteth  out  and 
treadeth  down,  whose  land  the  rivers  divide,  to  the  place  of  the 
name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  Mount  Zion. 

At  first  Tirhakah's  efforts  were  crowned  with  success. 
The  ambassadors  of  Hezekiah  made  their  way  to  Zoan 
and  Hanes,  or  Herakleopolis,  the  two  capitals  of  Egypt  at 
the  time  (Is.  xxx.  4),  and  from  thence  their  presents  to 
the  Pharaoh  were  sent  on  the  backs  of  camels  through  the 
desert  of  the  south  to  the  ancestral  seat  of  Tirhakah  in 
Ethiopia.  It  was  not  long  before  the  Jewish  envoys 
themselves  followed  '  in  vessels  of  bulrushes,'  pursuing 
the  Ethiopian  Pharaoh  to  his  own  southern  land,  '  which 
the  rivers  divide'  (Is.  xviii.  2),  in  the  vain  hope  of  obtaining 
help  from  '  a  people  that  should  not  profit  them.' 


30  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

Meanwhile  in  Palestine  itself  a  confederacy  was  or- 
ganised. Hezekiah  once  more  asserted  his  rights  as  a 
suzerain  over  the  cities  of  the  Philistines ;  the  Assyrian 
satrap  of  Ashkelon  was  displaced  in  favour  of  a  certain 
Zedekiah,  whose  name  seems  to  indicate  his  Jewish 
origin ;  and  Padi,  of  Ekron,  who  alone  refused  to  break 
his  oath  of  allegiance  to  Assyria,  was  carried  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  there  thrown  into  chains.  The  Phoenician 
towns  joined  in  the  revolt  against  Assyrian  authority, 
and  the  kings  of  Ammon,  Moab,  and  Edom  promised 
their  aid.  Tirhakah  collected  an  army,  and  stationed 
himself  on  the  Egyptian  frontier,  ready  to  move  into 
Palestine  when  occasion  required. 

Sennacherib  waited  nearly  three  years  before  he  con- 
sidered himself  sufficiently  prepared   to  march  towards 
the  West.     In   B.C.  701   the  great   invasion  took  place. 
The  Assyrian  army  was  led   by  able   generals,  trained 
under  Sargon,  the  father  and  predecessor  of  Sennacherib, 
and  it  proved  too  large  to  be  resisted  in  the  field  by  the 
allies.      The    Phoenician    cities    were    captured    before 
assistance  could  be  brought  to  them,  and  the  kings  of 
Ammon,  Moab,  and  Edom  judged  it  prudent  to  make 
their   peace  with  the  conqueror.     The  Philistine  towns 
were  taken  by  storm,  the  south  of  Judah  was  devastated, 
and  Hezekiah  was  forced  to  humble  himself  before  the 
terrible  invader,  and  to  sue  for  pardon  by  the  surrender 
of  Padi,  the  payment  of  his  former  tribute,  and  the  offer 
of  numerous   gifts.     But    Sennacherib  was   inexorable. 
Nothing   would    suffice    him    but    the    capitulation    of 
Jerusalem,    which   would    have    placed    Egypt   at    his 
mercy.     Tirhakah  was  well  awake  to  the  danger  which 
threatened  himself,  and  his  army  had  already  left  Egypt, 
and  had  reached  Eltekeh,  in  the  southern  part  of  Judah. 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  3 1 

The  Assyrian  forces  were  now  divided  into  two,  one 
portion  being  sent  to  besiege  Jerusalem,  while  the  rest 
endeavoured  to  check  the  advance  of  the  Egyptians. 

Nothing  can  show  more  clearly  how  large  must  have 
been  the  army  employed  by  Sennacherib  in  the  campaign, 
and  how  great  a  confidence  must  have  been  placed  by 
the  Assyrian  leaders  in  their  superiority  in  numbers. 
That  confidence  does  not  seem  to  have  been  misplaced, 
if  we  can  trust  the  assertions  of  Sennacherib.  He  claims 
to  have  defeated  the  Egyptian  army  at  Eltekeh,  captur- 
ing in  the  battle  the  Ethiopian  captains  and  '  the  sons  of 
the  king  of  Egypt.'  But  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
his  success  was  as  complete  as  he  represents  it  to  have 
been.  At  all  events,  he  did  not  follow  up  his  victory, 
and  contented  himself  with  taking  the  little  fortified 
villages  of  Eltekeh  and  Timnath.  Tirhakah,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  sufficiently  weakened  by  the  battle  to  be 
obliged  to  retreat,  and  to  leave  his  ally  Hezekiah  to  fall, 
as  seemed  inevitable,  into  the  hands  of  his  foe. 

It  was  at  this  moment,  when  all  human  aid  had  been 
withdrawn,  and  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  alone  stood 
between  the  Jewish  king  and  his  enemies,  that  the  great 
disaster  befell  the  triumphant  Assyrian  which  is  recorded 
in  the  pages  of  the  Bible.  God  declared  through  the 
mouth  of  Isaiah  that  He  would  defend  the  city  and  line 
of  David,  '  for  out  of  Jerusalem  shall  go  forth  a  remnant, 
and  they  that  escape  out  of  Mount  Zion  V  The  God  of 
Israel  was  mightier  than  the  Assyrian  tyrant  or  the 
princes  he  had  claimed  to  have  overthrown.  Sennacherib 
had  boasted  of  his  victory  over  the  Egyptian  monarch  ; 
'  with  the  sole  of  his  feet,'  he  had  declared,  he  had  '  dried 

1  Is.  xxxvii.  32. 


32  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

up  all  the  arms  of  the  Nile  of  MatsorV  But  though 
Tirhakah  had  been  thus  driven  back,  leaving  his  ally 
Hezekiah  to  his  fate,  the  divine  aid  was  promised  to  the 
Jewish  king,  not  for  his  own  sake  indeed,  for  Hezekiah 
had  trusted  to  the  arm  of  flesh  and  the  bruised  reed  of 
Egypt,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  Lord  Himself  and  His 
servant  David.  So  '  the  angel  of  the  Lord  went  forth 
and  smote  in  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians  a  hundred  and 
fourscore  and  five  thousand.'  The  besieging  army  was 
annihilated,  and  the  Assyrian  king,  who  seems  to  have 
remained  in  the  south  on  guard  against  a  possible  return 
of  Tirhakah,  hastily  gathered  his  forces  and  his  booty 
together  and  returned  homewards  to  Nineveh.  Like 
Xerxes  after  his  defeat  by  the  Greeks,  Sennacherib  never 
ventured  again  into  the  land  where  he  had  met  with  so 
signal  an  overthrow.  As  long  as  he  lived  Jerusalem  was 
unmolested  on  the  side  of  the  Assyrians. 

The  deliverance  from  the  invader  was  claimed  by  the 
Egyptians  for  the  piety  of  their  own  king.  The  guides 
who  showed  Herodotus  the  antiquities  of  Memphis  told 
him  that  when  Sennacherib,  '  the  king  of  the  Arabians 
and  Assyrians,'  attacked  the  country,  it  was  governed, 
not  by  a  monarch  of  the  royal  line,  but  by  a  priest  of 
Ptah  named  Sethos,  who  deprived  the  military  class  of 
the  lands  assigned  to  them  by  former  kings.  Accord- 
ingly they  refused  to  fight  against  the  enemy,  and  left 
him  to  oppose  Sennacherib  as  best  he  could  with  an 
army  of  artisans  and  tradesmen.  Then  Sethos  entered 
the  house  of  his  god,  and  wept  and  prayed  before  the 
image,  until  a  deep  sleep  fell  upon  him,  during  which 

1  Is.  xxxvii.  25.  The  Authorised  Version  renders  the  Hebrew  less 
accurately,  'the  rivers  of  the  besieged  places.'  Matsor  denoted  Northern 
Egypt,  Pathros  (Is.  xi.  11)  being  Southern  Egypt,  and  the  two  together 
forming  Mizraim  or  the  '  two  Matsors.' 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  ^ 

Ptah  revealed  himself  to  the  sleeper  and  promised  him 
victory  over  the  foe.  The  promise  was  speedily  fulfilled. 
While  the  Assyrian  host  was  still  encamped  at  Pelusion, 
on  the  frontiers  of  Egypt,  an  army  of  mice  entered  their 
camp  as  they  slept  and  gnawed  through  their  bowstrings, 
so  that  they  fell  an  easy  prey  on  the  morrow  to  the 
followers  of  the  Egyptian  king. 

The  legend  has  plainly  been  modelled  on  the  history 
recorded  in  the  Bible,  even  the  priestly  character  of 
Sethos  being  based  on  the  religious  reforms  of  Hezekiah  ; 
and  Egyptian  vanity  has  flattered  itself  not  only  by 
claiming  the  credit  of  overthrowing  the  Assyrians,  but 
also  by  ignoring  the  fact  that  Egypt  in  the  time  of 
Sennacherib's  campaign  was  governed  by  an  Ethiopian 
conqueror.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  authentic  history 
knows  nothing  of  Sethos,  while  the  story  of  the  mice 
was  suggested  to  the  guides  of  Herodotus  by  the  figure 
of  a  mouse  in  the  hands  of  a  god  whose  image  he  was 
shown  at  Memphis. 

Whether  Tirhakah  made  an  effort  to  recover  the  ancient 
influence  of  Egypt  in  Palestine,  after  the  retreat  of 
Sennacherib,  we  do  not  know.  At  all  events,  there  seems 
to  be  no  reference  to  anything  of  the  kind  in  the 
prophecies  of  Isaiah  or  Micah.  It  is  probable  that  the 
defeat  he  had  suffered  at  Eltekeh  had  weakened  his 
power  too  greatly  to  allow  him  much  opportunity  for 
doing  anything  else  than  confirm  his  own  authority  in 
Egypt.  Hezekiah  died  five  years  after  the  Assyrian 
overthrow  (13.  C.  696),  and  the  accession  of  his  son  Man- 
asseh  at  the  early  age  of  twelve  brought  with  it  all  the 
evils  of  a  minority,  which  were  further  increased  by  his 
relapse  into  idolatry.  The  friends  and  councillors  who 
had  surrounded  his  father  were  removed  or  put  to  death, 

C 


34  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

for  'Manasseh  shed  innocent  blood  very  much,  till  he 
had  filled  Jerusalem  from  one  end  to  another.'  The 
persecution  was  especially  severe  against  the  prophets 
who  denounced  his  idolatries  and  the  profanation  of  the 
temple  of  the  Lord.  It  is  therefore  possible  that  the 
internal  troubles  of  Judah  and  the  loss  of  the  prestige 
which  had  surrounded  the  name  of  Hezekiah  may  have 
tempted  Tirhakah  to  establish  his  influence  in  Jerusalem. 
None  of  the  prophets  who  lived  in  the  earlier  part  of 
Manasseh's  reign  have  left  us  any  remains;  Isaiah. 
Micah  and  Hosea  all  alike  ended  their  public  ministry 
during  the  reign  of  Hezekiah.  No  light,  consequently,  is 
thrown  upon  the  question  by  the  Jewish  records.  It  is 
true  that  on  a  statue  in  the  Bulak  Museum  Tirhakah 
claims  to  have  conquered  the  Khita  or  Syrians  as  well 
as  the  people  of  Arvad  ;  but  the  scribe  may  here  have 
merely  been  repeating  the  language  used  of  an  earlier 
king.  All  that  we  know  with  certainty  is  that  Manasseh 
was  a  tributary  vassal  of  Esar-haddon,  who  succeeded  his 
father  Sennacherib  in  B.C.  68 1,  and  that  accordingly  the 
independence  of  Judah  from  the  Assyrian  yoke  so  suc- 
cessfully achieved  by  Hezekiah  was  of  no  long  duration. 
The  first  result  of  the  renewal  of  Assyrian  authority 
and  influence  in  Judah  was  the  invasion  of  Egypt  by  the 
Assyrian  king.  This  time  the  attack  was  successful. 
Tirhakah  had  persuaded  Baal  of  Tyre  to  revolt  against 
Esar-haddon,  and  to  place  the  Phoenician  fleet  at  his  own 
disposal.  But  Esar-haddon  blockaded  Tyre  with  a  portion 
of  his  forces,  while  with  the  remainder  he  marched  south- 
ward towards  the  frontiers  of  Egypt.  He  met  with  no 
resistance  on  the  way,  and  his  army  was  supplied  with 
water  in  its  march  through  the  desert  by  a  Bedouin 
chief.     Tirhakah  was  defeated  in  a  pitched  battle,  and 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  $$ 

fled  to  Thebes,  leaving  Memphis,  with  his  wives  and 
concubines,  his  officers  and  treasure,  at  the  mercy  of 
Esar-haddon.  The  Assyrian  monarch  divided  the 
country  into  twenty  satrapies,  placing  the  majority  of 
them  under  native  princes,  but  filling  certain  posts  with 
Assyrian  garrisons. 

Tirhakah  did  not  long  remain  quiet.  In  B.C.  669  Esar- 
haddon  died,  and  his  son  and  successor  Assur-bani-pal 
found  himself  called  upon  to  quell  an  Egyptian  revolt. 
Tirhakah  had  returned  to  the  north,  and  had  entered 
Memphis  in  triumph,  driving  the  Assyrian  garrison  before 
him.  But  his  triumph  was  short-lived.  The  approach 
of  the  Assyrian  army  compelled  him  once  more  to 
retreat,  and  on  this  occasion  he  did  not  find  a  place  of 
refuge  until  he  had  reached  the  Ethiopian  capital 
Napata.  He  continued,  however,  to  intrigue  with  the 
Egyptian  princes,  and  before  long  Egypt  was  again 
handed  over  to  war  and  confusion.  Sais  and  other 
towns  which  had  headed  the  outbreak  were  taken  by 
storm,  and  their  leaders  sent  in  chains  to  Nineveh. 
Tirhakah,  who  had  advanced  to  Memphis,  was  driven  back 
to  the  Soudan,  where  he  died  shortly  afterwards,  after 
a  reign  of  twenty-six  years.  His  successor  was  Rut- 
Amun,  the  son  of  Sabako,  who  resumed  the  war  against 
the  Assyrians.  Thebes  opened  its  gates  to  him,  and 
the  Assyrian  garrison  was  expelled  from  Memphis. 
But  an  Assyrian  army  soon  entered  Egypt,  and  the 
Egyptian  soldiers  fled  before  their  terrible  antagonists. 
The  petty  kings  who  had  taken  part  in  the  insurrection 
were  punished,  and  the  Assyrian  forces  sailed  up  the 
river  to  Thebes,  where  a  fearful  vengeance  was  inflicted 
on  the  unfortunate  city.  Its  temples  and  palaces  were 
destroyed,  its  innumerable  treasures  carried  off,  and  two 

C  2 


36  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

obelisks,  seventy  tons  in  weight,  sent  as  trophies  to 
Nineveh.  Thebes  never  recovered  from  the  blow.  The 
ruin  of  its  mighty  temples  mostly  dates  from  its  over- 
throw by  the  Assyrians,  and  the  former  capital  of 
Egypt  sank  gradually  into  the  condition  of  a  small 
village.  It  is  little  wonder  that  Nahum  (iii.  8),  writing 
while  the  news  of  the  event  was  still  ringing  in  the  ears 
of  the  neighbouring  nations,  should  have  asked  whether 
Nineveh  were  'better  than  No  of  AmunV  so  that  it 
should  be  spared  the  destruction  it  had  brought  upon 
the  Egyptian  city.  '  Ethiopia  and  Egypt  were  her 
strength,  and  it  was  infinite ;  the  men  of  Somali  (Punt) 
and  of  Libya  were  thy  helpers.  Yet  was  she  carried 
away,  she  went  into  captivity  2.'  When  Egypt  recovered 
her  independence  under  Psammetikhos  (B.C.  660),  and 
shook  off  for  ever  the  Assyrian  yoke,  it  was  no  longer  in 
Thebes,  but  in  the  cities  of  the  north,  that  the  seat  of  the 
renovated  empire  was  fixed. 

Isaiah  had  foreseen  in  prophetic  vision  the  disasters  that 
were  to  come  upon  the  Egyptians.  The  Rab-shakeh3 
of  Assyria  had  warned  the  Jews  against  trusting  to  the 
staff  of  its  broken  reed,  but  Isaiah  had  described  in  plain 
language  (ch.  xix.)  the  troubles  which  Egypt  was  so 
speedily  to  experience.     We  again  quote  his  words : — 

The  burden  of  Egypt. 

Behold,  the  Lord  rideth  upon  a  swift  cloud,  and  cometh  unto 
Egypt:  and  the  idols  of  Egypt  shall  be  moved  at  His  presence,  and 
the  heart  of  Egypt  shall  melt  in  the  midst  of  it.  And  I  will  stir  up 
the  Egyptians  against  the  Egyptians :  and  they  shall  fight  every 
one  against  his    brother,  and   every  one  against  his  neighbour ; 

1  Mistranslated  'populous  No'  in  the  Authorised  Version. 

2  Nahum  iii.  9. 

3  In  Assyrian,  Rab-saki,  '  chief  of  the  princes,'  a  title  of  the  Vizier  or 
Prime  Minister. 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH.  37 

city  against  city,  and  kingdom  against  kingdom.  And  the  spirit  of 
Egypt  shall  be  made  void  in  the  midst  of  it ;  and  I  will  destroy  the 
counsel  thereof:  and  they  shall  seek  unto  the  idols,  and  to  the 
charmers,  and  to  them  that  have  familiar  spirits,  and  to  the  wizards. 
And  I  will  give  over  the  Egyptians  into  the  hand  of  a  cruel  lord ; 
and  a  fierce  king  shall  rule  over  them,  saith  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of 
hosts.  And  the  waters  shall  fail  from  the  sea,  and  the  river  shall 
be  wasted  and  become  dry.  And  the  rivers  shall  stink ;  the 
streams  of  Egypt  shall  be  minished  and  dried  up  :  the  reeds  and 
flags  shall  wither  away.  The  meadows  by  the  Nile,  by  the  brink 
of  the  Nile,  and  all  that  is  sown  by  the  Nile,  shall  become  dry,  be 
driven  away,  and  be  no  more.  The  fishers  also  shall  lament,  and 
all  they  that  cast  angle  into  the  Nile  shall  mourn,  and  they  that 
spread  nets  upon  the  waters  shall  languish.  Moreover  they  that 
work  in  combed  flax,  and  they  that  weave  white  cloth,  shall  be 
ashamed.  And  her  pillars  shall  be  broken  in  pieces,  all  they  that 
work  for  hire  shall  be  grieved  in  soul.  The  princes  of  Zoan  are 
utterly  foolish ;  the  counsel  of  the  wisest  counsellors  of  Pharaoh  is 
become  brutish :  how  say  ye  unto  Pharaoh,  I  am  the  son  of  the 
wise,  the  son  of  ancient  kings  ?  Where  then  are  thy  wise  men  ? 
and  let  them  tell  thee  now  ;  and  let  them  know  what  the  Lord 
of  hosts  hath  purposed  concerning  Egypt.  The  princes  of  Zoan 
are  become  fools,  the  princes  of  Noph  are  deceived ;  they  have 
caused  Egypt  to  go  astray,  that  are  the  corner-stone  of  her  tribes. 
The  Lord  hath  mingled  a  spirit  of  perverseness  in  the  midst  of  her : 
and  they  have  caused  Egypt  to  go  astray  in  every  work  thereof,  as 
a  drunken  man  staggereth  in  his  vomit.  Neither  shall  there  be 
for  Egypt  any  work,  which  head  or  tail,  palm-branch  or  rush, 
may  do. 

In  that  day  shall  Egypt  be  like  unto  women  :  and  it  shall  tremble 
and  fear  because  of  the  shaking  of  the  hand  of  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
which  He  shaketh  over  it.  And  the  land  of  Judah  shall  become  a 
terror  unto  Egypt,  every  one  to  whom  mention  is  made  thereof 
shall  be  afraid,  because  of  the  purpose  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  which 
He  purposeth  against  it. 

In  that  day  there  shall  be  five  cities  in  the  land  of  Egypt  that 
speak  the  language  of  Canaan,  and  swear  to  the  Lord  of  hosts;  one 
shall  be  called  The  city  of  destruction. 

In  that  day  shall  there  be  an  altar  to  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of 


38  EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE   OF  ISAIAH. 

the  land  of  Egypt,  and  a  pillar  at  the  border  thereof  to  the  Lord. 
And  it  shall  be  for  a  sign  and  for  a  witness  unto  the  Lord  of  hosts 
in  the  land  of  Egypt :  for  they  shall  cry  unto  the  Lord  because  of 
the  oppressors,  and  He  shall  send  them  a  saviour,  and  a  defender, 
and  he  shall  deliver  them.  And  the  Lord  shall  be  known  to  Egypt, 
and  the  Egyptians  shall  know  the  Lord  in  that  day;  yea,  they 
shall  worship  with  sacrifice  and  oblation,  and  shall  vow  a  vow  unto 
the  Lord,  and  shall  perform  it.  And  the  Lord  shall  smite  Egypt, 
smiting  and  healing  ;  and  they  shall  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  He 
shall  be  intreated  of  them,  and  shall  heal  them. 

In  that  day  shall  there  be  a  high  way  out  of  Egypt  to  Assyria, 
and  the  Assyrian  shall  come  into  Egypt,  and  the  Egyptian  into 
Assyria ;  and  the  Egyptians  shall  worship  with  the  Assyrians. 

In  that  day  shall  Israel  be  the  third  with  Egypt  and  with 
Assyria,  a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  earth  :  for  that  the  Lord  of 
hosts  hath  blessed  them,  saying,  Blessed  be  Egypt  My  people,  and 
Assyria  the  work  of  My  hands,  and  Israel  Mine  inheritance. 

The  land  of  Judah  was  thus  to  be  a  terror  unto  Egypt ; 
for  it  was  out  of  Judah  that  the  destroying  hosts  of 
Assyria  were  to  march,  secure  of  the  submission  of  the 
vassal  king  of  Jerusalem.  So  far  from  being  able  to 
afford  assistance  to  Judah,  Egypt  was  to  regard  Judah 
as  a  formidable  neighbour.  The  Jewish  party,  there- 
fore, which  sought  for  an  alliance  with  Egypt,  was 
pursuing  a  policy  which  on  human  as  well  as  on  divine 
grounds  was  utterly  fatal.  The  party  was  in  high  favour 
in  the  time  of  Hezekiah  ;  it  seemed  to  advocate  the 
only  line  of  policy  by  which  the  independence  of  the 
Jewish  state  could  be  secured,  and  Isaiah's  opposition 
and  words  of  warning  were  disregarded. 

But  events  showed  that  he  was  right.  The  alliance 
with  Egypt,  which  had  been  purchased  with  the  treasures 
of  Jerusalem,  and  the  toilsome  journey  of  the  Jewish 
ambassadors  into  the  heart  of  Ethiopia,  was  shattered  by 
the  battle  of  Eltekeh,  while  the  overthrow  of  the  army  of 


EGYPT  IN  THE  AGE  OF  ISAIAH.  39 

Sennacherib  before  Jerusalem  proved  that  trust  in  their 
God  was  the  only  defence  the  rulers  of  Judah  needed, 
and  that  their  strength  was,  as  Isaiah  had  declared, '  to 
sit  still1.'  From  that  time  onwards,  to  the  death  of 
Hezekiah,  there  was  no  more  straining  after  an  Egyptian 
alliance,  and  Isaiah's  later  years  were  cheered  by  the 
consciousness  that  the  policy  he  had  preached  and 
struggled  for  was  at  last  triumphant.  For  nearly  a 
century  Egypt  disappeared  from  the  political  horizon  of 
the  Jews. 

1  Is.  xxx.  7.  This  is  the  rendering  of  the  Authorised  Version,  and  is  in 
harmony  with  verse  15:  'In  returning  and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved;  in 
quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength  :  and  ye  would  not.'  Most 
modern  scholars,  howe^pr,  prefer  to  refer  the  words  of  verse  7  to  Egypt, 
translating  '  therefore  have  I  cried  concerning  her  (i.  e.  Egypt),  She  is 
arrogant  (and)  slothful.' 


CHAPTER   III. 

ASSYRIA. 

When  Isaiah  was  born  the  name  of  Assyria  excited  no 
feelings  of  terror  or  apprehension  in  the  mind  of  the  Jew. 
It  was  remembered  that  an  Assyrian  king  had  once 
marched  his  armies  to  the  west,  and  exacted  tribute  not 
only  from  the  cities  of  Phoenicia,  but  also  from  Jehu  of 
Israel,  and  that  at  a  later  period  (B.C.  804)  another 
Assyrian  king  had  taken  the  city  of  Damascus  by  storm  ; 
but  such  events  had  left  no  lasting  impressio'n  upon  the 
political  map  of  Palestine,  and  no  Assyrian  army  had  ap- 
proached the  frontier  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  itself.  All 
that  was  known  in  the  west  about  Assyria  was  that  it  was 
in  a  decaying  condition.  The  old  dynasty  of  kings  had  lost 
its  military  character,  and  the  Assyrian  troops  had  a  hard 
struggle  to  maintain  the  northern  boundaries  of  the 
kingdom  against  the  attacks  of  Ararat  or  Van.  But  in 
B.C.  745  an  event  happened  which  had  a  profound  effect 
on  the  course  of  history  in  Western  Asia.  The  last 
monarch  of  the  old  line  died  or  was  put  to  death,  and 
the  throne  was  seized  by  a  military  adventurer  called 
Pulu  or  Pul,  who  took  the  name  of  Tiglath-pileser  III. 

This  Tiglath-pileser  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and 
force  of  character.  He  excelled  as  a  commander ;  he 
equally  excelled  as  an  administrator  and  civil  organiser. 
Under  him  the  Assyrian  army  became  once  more  the 
scourge  of  the  surrounding  nations  ;  nothing  could  resist 
it ;   and   the   leagues  which    were    formed    against   the 


ASSYRIA.  41 

advance  of  Assyrian  ambition  were  scattered  like 
stubble  in  the  wind.  Victory  after  victory  attended 
upon  the  new  Assyrian  king  and  his  generals.  But 
his  campaigns  were  not  mere  raids  for  the  sake  of 
plunder.,  like  those  of  earlier  Assyrian  sovereigns ;  they 
were  all  conceived  with  a  definite  object  and  carried 
out  according  to  a  definite  plan.  Tiglath-pileser 
determined  to  found  an  empire  in  Western  Asia  which 
should  embrace  the  whole  of  the  civilised  world,  and  the 
centre  of  which  should  be  Nineveh.  It  was  a  new  idea  in 
history.  Hitherto  a  royal  conqueror  had  been  content  with 
exacting  tribute,  which  was  paid  by  the  conquered  people 
as  long  as  the  foreign  army  was  near  them,  and  refused 
as  soon  as  it  was  withdrawn.  The  conquered  districts 
had  to  be  reconquered  again  and  again  ;  they  were  never 
welded  into  one  with  the  conquering  power  and  formed 
into  a  homogeneous  empire.  To  found  such  an  empire 
was  the  task  undertaken  by  Tiglath-pileser.  Slowly, 
but  surely,  he  extended  the  Assyrian  sway,  turning  the 
conquered  countries  into  Assyrian  provinces  under 
Assyrian  satraps  appointed  by  the  supreme  king  himself. 
The  taxes  to  be  paid  by  the  newly-constituted  satrapies 
were  carefully  apportioned,  and  a  great  civil  bureaucracy 
was  organised,  which  had  its  centre  and  head  in  Nineveh. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  the  con- 
ception of  imperial  centralisation  was  formed,  and  an 
attempt  was  made  to  realise  it  in  fact. 

The  second  Assyrian  empire,  founded  by  Tiglath- 
pileser,  was  thus  a  new  experiment  in  political  history. 
It  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  era.  Based  upon 
military  aggression,  it  was  consolidated  and  carried  on 
by  civil  law.  There  was  to  be  one  law  and  government 
throughout  the  world,   one  supreme  monarch  to  obey, 


42  4SSYXIA. 

one  supreme  deity — Assur,  the  national  god  of  Assyria — 
to  revere. 

Isaiah  was  not  very  old  before  Judah  had  reason 
to  know  that  a  new  and  terrible  power  had  arisen 
on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris.  In  B.  c.  743  the  first  contact 
took  place  between  Judah  and  Assyria.  The  contact 
was  a  hostile  one.  Tiglath-pilescr  threatened  Hamath, 
which  had  found  an  ally  in  Azariah  of  Jerusalem.  From 
the  time  of  David  onwards  there  had  always  been 
friendly  relations  between  Hamath  and  Judah.  They 
each  had  a  common  enemy  in  the  intervening  power  of 
Syria.  The  overthrow  of  the  Syrian  prince  Hadadezer 
had  brought  about  an  alliance  between  Tou  of  Hamath 
and  the  Jewish  conqueror,  and  when  the  kingdom  of 
Damascus  was  established  on  the  ruins  of  David's 
empire  we  may  gather  from  2  Kings  xiv.  28  that  in 
the  days  of  Jeroboam  II  a  peculiar  bond  of  union  still 
continued  to  exist  between  Hamath  and  Judah.  The 
same  fact  appears  very  clearly  on  the  Assyrian  monu- 
ments. The  people  of  Hamath,  as  we  learn  from  them, 
were  supported  in  their  resistance  to  Assyria  by  Azariah, 
the  Jewish  king,  and  accordingly  nineteen  districts  of 
Hamath,  'which  in  their  wickedness  had  plotted  with 
Azariah,'  were  overrun  by  the  Assyrian  troops  and 
placed  under  an  Assyrian  governor. 

So  long,  however,  as  the  rich  and  powerful  kingdom 
of  the  Hittites  lasted,  with  its  capital  Carchemish  com- 
manding the  fords  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  high-road 
to  the  West,  it  was  impossible  for  the  Assyrian  monarch 
to  establish  his  authority  firmly  in  Syria  and  Palestine. 
But  Carchemish  had  been  weakened  by  the  intestine 
divisions  of  the  Hittite  states,  as  well  as  by  attacks  from 
without,  and,  in  spite  of  the  assistance  brought  to  it  by 


ASSYRIA.  43 

the  wilder  Hittite  tribes  of  the  northern  mountains,  the 
day  of  its  final  overthrow  was  near.  Tiglath-pileser  was 
able  to  neglect  it  for  the  present,  and  to  concentrate  his 
attention  on  the  affairs  of  Damascus  and  Phoenicia. 

In  B.C.  738  we  find  him  receiving  tribute  from 
Menahem  of  Samaria,  Rezon  of  Damascus,  and  Hiram 
of  Tyre.  The  payment  of  tribute  implied  the  admission 
of  the  paramount  authority  of  the  Assyrian  king,  and 
proved  that  by  this  time  the  Syrian  princes  were  fully 
awake  to  the  dangers  which  threatened  them  on  the  side 
of  Assyria.  They  soon  afforded  another  proof  of  their 
anxiety  on  this  score.  The  throne  of  Israel  was  occupied 
at  the  time  by  Pekah,  a  successful  general  who  had 
murdered  his  predecessor,  but  who  was  evidently  a  man 
of  vigour  and  ability.  He  and  Rezon  endeavoured  to 
form  a  confederacy  of  the  Syrian  and  Palestinian  states 
against  their  common  Assyrian  foe.  In  order  to  effect 
their  object  they  considered  it  necessary  to  displace  the 
reigning  king  of  Judah,  Ahaz,  and  substitute  for  him  a 
creature  of  their  own.  The  latter  is  called  '  the  son  of 
Tabeel '  (Is.  vii.  6),  a  name  which  seems  to  be  of  Syrian 
origin,  and  consequently  to  indicate  that  the  bearer  of  it 
was  a  Syrian  by  birth.  But  the  people  of  Judah  rallied 
round  the  house  of  David,  in  spite  of  the  weak  and  un- 
worthy character  of  its  representative,  and  the  allies  were 
compelled  to  resort  to  arms  in  order  to  impose  their 
nominee  upon  Jerusalem.  They  were  aided  by  a  party 
of  malcontents  in  Judah  itself  (Is.  viii.  6),  and  the  position 
of  Ahaz  seemed  desperate.  His  forces  had  been  beaten 
in  the  field,  the  Syrian  army  had  made  its  way  to  the 
extreme  south  of  the  country,  and  had  even  wrested  from 
Judah  its  naval  port  of  Elath,  on  the  Gulf  of  Akabah, 
while  the  Philistines  had  taken  advantage  of  the  occasion 


44  ASSYRIA. 

to  invade  and  annex  the  neighbouring  Jewish  towns1.  In 
this  moment  of  peril  Isaiah  was  instructed  to  meet  and 
comfort  Ahaz.  He  bade  him  '  fear  not,  neither  be  faint- 
hearted,' for  the  confederacy  against  the  dynasty  of 
David  should  be  broken  and  overthrown.  All  that 
Ahaz  was  called  upon  to  do  was  to  '  be  quiet,'  to  adopt 
a  policy  of  patient  expectancy;  awaiting  the  time  when 
Damascus  and  Samaria  should  alike  be  destroyed  by 
that  Assyrian  power  which  they  were  vainly  essaying  to 
stem.  But  Ahaz  had  already  determined  on  the  policy 
he  intended  to  pursue.  He  had  no  faith  either  in  the 
prophet  or  in  the  message  he  was  commissioned  to 
deliver.  He  saw  safety  in  one  course  only — that  of  in- 
voking the  assistance  of  the  Assyrian  king,  and  bribing 
him  by  the  offer  of  homage  and  tribute  to  march  against 
his  enemies. 

In  vain  Isaiah  denounced  so  suicidal  and  unpatriotic 
a  policy.  In  vain  he  foretold  that  when  Damascus  and 
Samaria  had  been  crushed,  the  next  victim  of  the 
Assyrian  king  would  be  Judah  itself.  The  infatuated 
Ahaz  would  not  listen.  He  '  sent  messengers  to  Tierlath- 
pileser  king  of  Assyria,  saying,  I  am  thy  servant  and  thy 
son :  come  up,  and  save  me  out  of  the  hand  of  the  king 
of  Syria,  and  out  of  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Israel,  which 
rise  up  against  meV 

Tiglath-pileser  was  ready  enough  to  obey.  He  had 
been  looking  for  an  opportunity  to  interfere  in  the  West, 
and  this  was  afforded  by  the  Jewish  king.  He  could 
now  march  his  armies  past  the  Hittite  fortress  of  Car- 
chemish,  and  proceed  leisurely  to  the  conquest  of  Syria, 
secure    in    the    knowledge   that    the    equally    important 

1  See  2  Kings  xvi.  6;  2  Chron.  xxviii.  17,  18. 

2  Compare  Is.  vii.  with  2  Kings  xvi.  7. 


ASSYRIA.  45 

fortress  of  Jerusalem  was  upon  his  side,  preventing 
the  Egyptians  from  moving  to  the  help  of  the  Syrian 
prince.  Ahaz  thus  enabled  Tiglath-pileser  to  effect 
with  comparatively  little  difficulty  what  might  other- 
wise have  been  a  slow  and  arduous  work.  At  the  same 
time,  by  voluntarily  acknowledging  himself  the  vassal 
of  Assyria,  he  laid  a  lasting  yoke  upon  his  country 
and  successors,  and  made  all  future  attempts  at  inde- 
pendence rebellions  against  their  liege  lord. 

In  the  fragmentary  annals  of  Tiglath-pileser,  Ahaz  is 
called  Jehoahaz,  a  name  which  signifies  'the  Lord  has 
laid  hold.'  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  sacred  histo- 
rians have  deprived  the  name  of  the  Jewish  king  of  the 
divine  element  (Jeho)  which  they  considered  him  to  have 
profaned. 

His  tribute  was  paid  in  B.C.  734.  The  Assyrian  king 
must  already  have  been  in  the  West.  He  lost  little  time, 
therefore,  in  hurling  his  forces  upon  the  confederate 
powers  of  Damascus  and  Samaria.  Rezon  was  over- 
thrown in  a  decisive  battle,  his  chariots  destroyed,  his 
captains  captured  and  impaled,  and  himself  compelled 
to  fly  for  refuge  to  his  capital,  Damascus.  Here  he  was 
closely  besieged  by  a  portion  of  the  Assyrian  army, 
the  beautiful  gardens  by  which  the  city  was  surrounded 
being  despoiled  of  their  trees  for  use  in  the  siege. 
Tiglath-pileser  with  the  rest  of  his  troops  carried  fire 
and  sword  through  the  sixteen  districts  of  Syria,  and 
then  proceeded  to  fall  upon  Samaria.  The  northern 
part  of  the  country  was  overrun,  and  the  tribes  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Jordan  carried  into  captivity.  Gilead 
and  Abel-beth-Maachath  are  among  the  places  men- 
tioned by  name  in  the  Assyrian  annals  as  having  been 
sacked,  in  accordance  with  the  statement  of  2  Kings 


46  ASSYRIA. 

xv.  29.  The  Assyrian  monarch  now  pursued  his 
victorious  march  to  the  south.  Ammon  and  Moab, 
which  had  aided  Israel  and  Syria  in  their  assault  upon 
Judah,  were  compelled  to  submit,  and  troops  were  sent 
against  Edom  and  the  queen  of  the  Arabs,  who  had 
also  taken  part  in  the  war  against  Ahaz  (see  2  Chron. 
xxviii.  17,  18).  Tiglath-pileser  next  turned  westward 
towards  the  sea-coast,  in  order  to  punish  the  Philistines. 
Their  old  hostility  to  the  Jewish  monarchy  had  doubtless 
led  them  to  support  Rezon,  the  weakness  of  Judah 
affording  them  an  opportunity  of  throwing  off  the  Jewish 
yoke.  They  had  found  a  leader  in  Khanun  or  Hanno 
of  Gaza,  who  escaped  into  Egypt  upon  the  approach 
of  the  Assyrian  army,  leaving  his  city  to  the  mercy  of 
the  enemy.  Tiglath-pileser  contented  himself  with 
laying  it  under  tribute,  carrying  away  its  gods,  and 
erecting  an  image  of  himself  in  the  temple  of  Dagon. 
Ekron  and  Ashdod  were  punished  at  the  same  time, 
and  Metinti  of  Ashkelon  committed  suicide,  in  order 
to  escape  the  vengeance  of  the  conqueror.  As  Gath 
is  not  mentioned,  it  would  appear  that  it  had  already 
disappeared  from  history. 

From  the  cities  of  Philistia  Tiglath-pileser  made  his 
way  into  the  territory  of  Israel.  Pekah  was  now  left 
destitute  of  allies,  and  face  to  face  with  the  irresistible 
conqueror.  Samaria  soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Assyrians,  and  Pekah  was  put  to  death.  According 
to  Tiglath-pileser,  the  execution  was  by  his  order. 
Hoshca  being  appointed  in  his  place  as  a  tributary  vassal 
of  Assyria.  The  Old  Testament  informs  us  that  the 
instrument  for  carrying  out  the  commands  of  the  As- 
syrian king  was  Hoshea,  the  son  of  Elah,  himself 
(2  Kings  xv.  30). 


ASSYRIA.  47 

Meanwhile  Damascus  had  at  last  surrendered,  after 
a  siege  of  two  years  (B.C.  732).  Rezon  was  slain,  his 
subjects  transported  to  Kir  (2  Kings  xvi.  9),  and  the 
neighbouring  princes  summoned  to  his  palace,  there  to 
do  homage  to  the  Assyrian  king.  Among  those  who 
came  was  Ahaz  of  Judah,  in  company  with  Sanib  of 
Ammon,  Solomon  or  Shalman  of  Moab,  Kavus-melech 
of  Edom,  and  Hanno  of  Gaza,  who  had  succeeded  in 
bringing  about  a  reconciliation  between  himself  and  '  the 
great  king.' 

It  was  while  he  was  at  Damascus  that  Ahaz  saw  the 
altar  of  which  he  sent  a  pattern  to  Urijah  the  priest  at 
Jerusalem.  It  had  doubtless  been  dedicated  to  Rimmon, 
the  sun-god  of  Syria,  and  it  was  this  altar  of  a  heathen 
and  vanquished  deity  that  Ahaz,  fascinated  perhaps  by 
its  size,  now  determined  to  substitute  for  the  brazen 
altar  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord.  Before  his  return  to 
Jerusalem  the  subservient  priest  had  carried  out  his 
instructions.  The  new  altar  was  set  up  in  front  of  the 
sanctuary,  and  the  older  one  transferred  to  its  northern 
side.  Ahaz  offered  upon  it  solemn  sacrifice,  in  com- 
memoration of  his  return  in  '  peace,'  and  enjoined  Urijah 
henceforward  to  burn  upon  it  'the  morning  burnt  offering, 
and  the  evening  meat  offering,  and  the  king's  burnt 
sacrifice,  and  his  meat  offering,  with  the  burnt  offering 
of  all  the  people  of  the  land,  and  their  meat  offering 
and  their  drink  offerings ; '  while  the  brazen  altar  was 
reserved  for  the  purposes  of  an  oracle,  where  Ahaz 
might  'enquire'  the  will  of  Heaven  (2  Kings  xvi. 
10-16). 

This  Syrian  altar,  however,  was  not  the  only  fruit 
of  the  visit  of  Ahaz  to  Damascus.  We  hear  in  Isa. 
xxxviii.  8  of  the  'sun-dial  of  Ahaz,'  and  it  is  difficult 


48  ASSYRIA. 

not  to  see  in  this  a  proof  of  Assyrian  influence.  The 
Babylonians  were  celebrated  throughout  the  ancient 
world  for  their  astronomical  lore,  and  the  invention  of  the 
gnomon  or  sun-dial  is  ascribed  to  them.  In  astronomy, 
as  in  other  branches  of  learning,  the  Assyrians  were 
the  pupils  of  the  Babylonians,  and  through  the  As- 
syrians the  form  and  use  of  the  sun-dial  might  easily 
have  become  known  to  the  Jewish  king.  It  is  possible 
that  the  library  of  Jerusalem,  where,  as  we  learn  from 
Prov.  xxv.  i,  scribes  were  employed  in  copying  and 
editing  ancient  works,  like  the  scribes  of  the  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  libraries,  was  also  founded  by  Ahaz. 
At  all  events,  it  seems  to  have  owed  its  origin  to  that 
contact  with  Assyria  for  which  Ahaz  was  first  respon- 
sible, and  which  led  in  some  measure  to  the  outburst 
of  literary  activity  that  marked  the  age  of  Isaiah. 

For  nearly  six  years  Hoshea  remained  faithful  to 
Assyria.  But  in  B.C.  727  Tiglath-pileser  died,  and 
the  throne  was  seized  by  a  general  of  the  army,  who 
took  the  name  of  Shalmaneser  IV.  The  second  As- 
syrian empire  had  been  founded  upon  usurpation  and 
military  force,  and  what  its  founder  had  successfully 
achieved  other  generals  thought  they  might  achieve  too. 
The  moment  seemed  a  favourable  one  to  Hoshea  to 
renounce  his  allegiance  to  the  Assyrians.  In  earlier 
times  a  distant  conquest  had  been  retained  by  them 
only  so  long  as  the  conqueror  lived  or  had  energy  and 
power  enough  to  punish  any  attempt  at  disaffection. 
The  conquests  of  the  older  Assyrian  kings  had  been 
raids  rather  than  permanent  annexations  of  territory. 
Hoshea  doubtless  imagined  that  the  conquests  of  Tiglath- 
pileser,  like  those  of  his  predecessors,  would  melt  away 
as  soon  as  the  strong  hand  that  had  effected  them  was 


ASSYRTA.  49 

removed.  But  he  was  soon  undeceived.  It  was  an 
empire  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word  that  Tiglath- 
pileser  had  succeeded  in  establishing,  and  the  empire 
was  maintained  by  a  standing  army  of  veteran  soldiers, 
commanded  by  able  generals  who  shared  the  views 
and  policy  of  Tiglath-pileser  himself.  A  change  of 
sovereigns  accordingly  made  little  difference  in  the 
policy  of  Assyria.  It  was  carried  on  by  men  all  trained 
in  the  same  military  and  political  school,  and  bent  on 
carrying  out  to  their  accomplishment  the  designs  of 
their  master.  Hoshea's  attempt  at  rebellion  was  promptly 
crushed.  Unable  to  find  allies  elsewhere,  he  had  turned 
to  Sabako  of  Egypt,  and,  like  Hezekiah  in  later  days, 
had  found  the  Ethiopian  but  a  bruised  reed.  Before 
Sabako  could  move  to  his  assistance,  Hoshea  was  de- 
feated by  the  Assyrian  king  or  his  satraps,  and  thrown 
into  chains.  The  ruling  classes  of  Samaria,  however, 
still  held  out.  An  Assyrian  army,  accordingly,  once 
more  devastated  the  land  of  Israel,  and  laid  siege  to  its 
capital. 

For  three  years  Samaria  remained  untaken.  Another 
revolution  had  meanwhile  broken  out  in  Assyria ;  Shal- 
maneser  had  died  or  been  put  to  death,  and  a  fresh 
military  adventurer  had  seized  the  crown,  taking  the  name 
of  Sargon,  after  a  famous  monarch  of  ancient  Babylonia. 
Sargon  had  hardly  established  himself  upon  the  throne 
when  Samaria  fell  (B.C.  722).  The  spoil  he  carried  away 
from  it  shows  pretty  plainly  the  condition  in  which 
Hoshea  had  left  his  kingdom.  Ahab  had  once  been 
able  to  send  2000  chariots  to  the  help  of  Hadadezer  in 
his  struggle  against  Assyria  ;  now  Sargon  found  no  more 
than  fifty  in  the  Israelitish  capital.  He  contented 
himself  with  transporting  only  27,280  of  its  inhabitants 

I) 


5<D  ASSYRIA. 

into  captivity,  only  the  upper  classes,  in  fact,  who  were 
implicated  in  the  revolt  of  Hoshea.  An  Assyrian  satrap, 
or  governor,  was  appointed  over  Samaria,  while  the  bulk 
of  the  population  was  allowed  to  remain  peaceably  in 
their  old  homes1. 

Sargon  was  a  rough  but  able  soldier,  and  under  him 
the  Assyrian  army  became  irresistible.  His  reign  wit- 
nessed the  consolidation  of  the  empire  and  the  fulfilment 
for  the  most  part  of  Tiglath-pileser's  designs.  The  main 
objects  of  his  policy  and  military  campaigns  were  two- 
fold. On  the  one  side  he  aimed  at  turning  the  whole  of 
Western  Asia  into  an  integral  part  of  the  Assyrian 
dominion,  and  thus  diverting  the  maritime  trade  of 
Phoenicia  and  the  inland  trade  of  the  Hittites  into 
Assyrian  hands.  On  the  other  side,  he  desired  to  con- 
secrate and  legitimise  his  power  by  the  possession  of 
Babylonia.  Babylonia  was  the  cradle  of  Assyrian  cul- 
ture and  religion ;  it  was  the  sacred  motherland  from 
which  Asshur  had  gone  forth  in  prehistoric  days  to  build 
the  cities  of  Assyria.  The  Assyrian  regarded  it  as  the 
mediaeval  German  regarded  Rome ;  to  be  crowned  king 
at  Babylon  gave  the  Assyrian  monarch  the  same  title  to 
veneration  that  coronation  at  Rome  gave  to  a  Char- 
lemagne or  an  Otho.  It  was  the  visible  sign  of 
sovereignty  in  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  a 
proof  that  Bel  had  set  apart  the  sovereign  as  the  rightful 
successor  of  the  heroes  and  princes  of  old.  What  the 
kings  of  the  second  Assyrian  empire  wanted  in  legitimacy 
of  birth,  they  sought  to  obtain  by  the  conquest  of 
Babylon. 

Tiglath-pileser  had  made  himself  master  of  Babylonia 
immediately  after  his  conquest  of  Damascus,  and  a  year 
1  This  is  in  accordance  with  2  Chron.  xxx,  xxxi. 


ASSYRIA.  51 

or  two  before  his  death  had  '  taken  the  hand  of  Bel/  a 
ceremony  which  announced  to  the  world  that  the  chief 
god  of  Babylon  had  accepted  him  as  the  lawful  defender 
of  the  city.  In  Babylonia  he  retained  his  original  name 
of  Pul,  since  that  of  Tiglath-pileser  belonged  to  a  former 
king  of  Assyria  whose  relations  with  Babylonia  had  been 
the  reverse  of  friendly.  Sargon,  on  the  other  hand, 
assumed  a  name  which  marked  him  out  as  specially  a 
Babylonian,  and  in  virtue  of  it  claimed  from  the  outset 
of  his  reign  the  sovereignty  of  Babylon.  For  the  pre- 
sent, however,  the  claim  could  be  asserted  only,  not 
made  good.  Babylonia  had  been  occupied  by  Merodach- 
baladan,  'the  son  of  Yagina,'  and  chief  of  a  Chaldean 
tribe  settled  in  the  marshes  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Euphrates,  who  for  twelve  years  succeeded  in  keeping 
the  Assyrian  king  at  bay.  Sargon  meanwhile  was  busily 
employed  in  strengthening  his  northern  and  eastern 
frontiers  against  the  wild  tribes  of  Kurdistan,  and  in 
completing  the  subjugation  of  Western  Asia. 

Two  years  after  the  fall  of  Samaria  (B.C.  720)  he  had 
again  been  summoned  to  the  West.  Hamath  had  broken 
into  revolt,  and  induced  Damascus,  Arpad,  and  Samaria 
to  follow  her  example.  Promises  of  aid  had  been 
received  from  Egypt,  while  the  restless  Khanun  of  Gaza 
had  again  declared  himself  independent  of  Assyria.  It 
is  possible  that  Hezekiah,  who  had  now  succeeded  his 
father  Ahaz,  may  also  have  been  concerned  in  the  move- 
ment. At  all  events,  the  name  of  the  Hamathite  king 
Yahu-bihdi,  which  is  once  written  El-bihdi,  contains  the 
name  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  the  friendship  between 
Hamath  and  Judah  was,  as  we  have  seen,  of  long 
standing. 

However  this  may  be,  the  rebels  proved  no  match  for 

D  2 


52  ASSYRIA. 

the  Assyrian  king.  Yahu-bihdi  was  captured  at  Aroer, 
and  flayed  alive ;  Hamath  was  colonised  by  Assyrians 
under  an  Assyrian  governor,  while  its  former  inhabitants 
were  transplanted  to  Samaria.  The  Assyrian  army  then 
marched  southward  ;  the  Egyptian  forces  were  routed  at 
Raphia,  and  Khanun  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 
For  nine  years  Palestine  remained  sullenly  submissive  to 
Assyrian  rule. 

The  interval  was  used  by  Sargon  in  securing  his  road 
to  the  Mediterranean.  In  B.C.  717,  Carchemish,  the  rich 
capital  of  the  Hittites  south  of  the  Taurus,  fell  into  his 
hands,  and  along  with  it  the  command  of  the  great  ford 
across  the  Euphrates,  and  the  commerce  which  passed 
over  it.  In  vain  the  kinsfolk  and  allies  of  the  people  of 
Carchemish  came  to  their  assistance  from  the  moun- 
tainous regions  of  the  north.  The  shock  of  their  attack 
was  broken  by  the  trained  valour  of  the  Assyrian  forces  ; 
Sargon  carried  the  war  into  the  wild  regions  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  Carchemish  passed  for  ever  out  of  Hittite 
possession.  Henceforward  it  became  the  seat  of  an 
Assyrian  satrap. 

Assyria  was  now  connected  with  its  possessions  in  the 
West  by  a  well-guarded  and  continuous  road.  The  hope 
of  successful  resistance  to  its  domination  had  become 
wellnigh  desperate.  The  tributary  kingdoms  which  lay 
south  of  the  Assyrian  satrapy  of  Samaria  served  only  as 
a  thin  screen  of  division  between  the  decaying  power  of 
Egypt  and  the  ever-increasing  and  ever-menacing  might 
of  Nineveh.  The  Assyrian  had  indeed  come  in  like  a 
flood.  In  the  south  Merodach-baladan,  backed  by  the 
armies  of  Elam,  still  governed  an  independent  Babylonia ; 
but  as  year  by  year  went  by,  and  the  power  of  Sargon 
steadily  grew  and  consolidated,  he  saw  the  doom  that 


ASSYRIA.  S3 

awaited  him  nearing  in  the  distance.  It  could  not  be 
long  before  the  Assyrian  king  would  consider  that  all 
was  ripe  for  the  invasion  of  Babylonia. 

Merodach-baladan  therefore  determined  to  anticipate 
the  attack.  In  the  neighbouring  monarchy  of  Elam  he 
had  a  powerful,  though  untrustworthy  ally ;  but  his  only 
chance  of  successfully  resisting  the  invader  was  by  forcing 
him  to  divide  his  forces.  If  he  could  induce  Egypt  and 
Palestine  to  rise  in  arms  at  the  same  time  that  he  himself 
fell  upon  Sargon  from  the  south,  there  was  a  hope  that 
the  common  enemy  could  be  crushed,  and  that  the 
terrible  scourge  which  was  afflicting  all  Western  Asia 
might  be  overthrown. 

In  the  fourteenth  year  of  Hezekiah's  reign  (B.C.  711), 
accordingly,  ambassadors  came  from  the  court  of  Baby- 
lon, under  the  pretext  of  congratulating  the  Jewish  king 
on  his  recovery  from  sickness.  Their  real  object,  how- 
ever, was  something  very  different.  It  was  to  concert 
measures  with  Hezekiah  for  a  general  uprising  in  the 
West,  and  for  the  formation  of  a  league  against  Sargon, 
which  should  embrace  at  once  Babylonia,  Palestine,  and 
Elam.  Hezekiah  was  flattered  by  such  a  proof  of  his 
own  importance.  He  opened  the  gates  of  his  armoury 
and  treasure-house,  and  showed  the  ambassadors  the 
accumulated  stores  of  wealth  and  arms  which  he  was 
ready  to  lavish  on  the  war.  Isaiah  thus  describes  his 
weakness : — 

At  that  time  Merodach-baladan  the  son  of  Baladan,  king  of 
Babylon,  sent  letters  and  a  present  to  Hezekiah:  for  he  heard  that 
he  had  been  sick,  and  was  recovered.  And  Hezekiah  was  glad  of 
them,  and  shewed  them  the  house  of  his  precious  things,  the  silver, 
and  the  gold,  and  the  spices,  and  the  precious  oil,  and  all  the  house 
of  his  armour,  and  all  that  was  found  in  his  treasures :  there  was 


54  ASSYRIA. 

nothing  in  his  house,  nor  in  all  his  dominion,  that  Hezekiah  shewed 
them  not.  Then  came  Isaiah  the  prophet  unto  king  Hezekiah,  and 
said  unto  him,  What  said  these  men?  and  from  whence  came  they 
unto  thee  ?  And  Hezekiah  said,  They  are  come  from  a  far  country 
unto  me,  even  from  Babylon.  Then  said  he,  What  have  they  seen 
in  thine  house?  And  Hezekiah  answered,  All  that  is  in  mine 
house  have  they  seen  :  there  is  nothing  among  my  treasures  that  I 
have  not  shewed  them.  Then  said  Isaiah  to  Hezekiah,  Hear  the 
word  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  Behold,  the  days  come,  that  all  that  is 
in  thine  house,  and  that  which  thy  fathers  have  laid  up  in  store 
until  this  day,  shall  be  carried  to  Babylon :  nothing  shall  be  left, 
saith  the  Lord.  And  of  thy  sons  that  shall  issue  from  thee, 
which  thou  shalt  beget,  shall  they  take  away ;  and  they  shall  be 
eunuchs  in  the  palace  of  the  king  of  Babylon.  Then  said  Hezekiah 
unto  Isaiah,  Good  is  the  word  of  the  Lord  which  thou  hast  spoken. 
He  said  moreover,  For  there  shall  be  peace  and  truth  in  my  days. 

That  policy  of  quietude,  of  '  sitting  still,'  which  Isaiah 
had  preached,  was  forgotten,  and  the  Jewish  king  proved 
himself  only  too  ready  to  ally  himself  with  heathen 
powers,  to  break  his  plighted  word  to  Assyria,  and  to 
rely  for  salvation  on  '  the  arm  of  flesh.'  When  Isaiah 
came  to  him  with  stern  rebuke  and  the  prophecy  that 
a  day  should  come  when  his  treasures  should  be  carried 
indeed  to  Babylon,  but  in  the  train  of  a  conqueror, 
Hezekiah  bent  his  head  in  apparent  contrition,  but  made 
no  effort  to  withdraw  himself  from  the  political  com- 
bination in  which  he  had  promised  to  be  an  actor. 

Sargon,  however,  was  not  blind  to  what  was  going  on. 
The  pretext  upon  which  the  Babylonian  ambassadors 
had  sought  the  court  of  Hezekiah  did  not  deceive  him, 
and  he  resolved  to  strike  before  the  enemy  could  unite 
their  forces.  Palestine  was  the  first  to  suffer.  Akhimit, 
whom  the  Assyrians  had  appointed  king  of  Ashdod,  had 
been  dethroned,  and  a  certain  Yavan,  '  the  Greek,'  had 
been  put  in  his  place,  probably  by  Hezekiah.     Ashdod 


ASSYRIA.  55 

thus  became  the  centre  of  the  opposition  to  Assyrian 
authority.  Its  punishment  was  not  long  delayed.  Sargon 
swept  '  the  widespread  land  of  Judah,'  and  coerced  the 
Edomites  and  Moabites,  while  the  Ethiopian  king  of 
Egypt  hid  himself  behind  the  frontiers  of  the  Delta. 
The  Tartan  or  commander-in-chief  was  sent  against 
Ashdod  ;  the  city  was  captured  and  razed  to  the  ground, 
its  inhabitants  sold  into  slavery,  and  the  unfortunate 
Yavan,  who  had  escaped  into  Egypt,  was  handed  over 
by  his  cowardly  hosts  to  the  mercy  of  his  enemy  1. 

Sargon  himself  seems  at  the  time  to  have  been  in 
Judah.  Though  he  has  left  us  no  details  of  the  cam- 
paign, beyond  the  general  statement  that  he  overran 
'  the  broad  fields  of  the  Jews,'  we  may  gather  from  the 
pages  of  Isaiah  that  he  had  invested  the  Jewish  capital 
and  compelled  it  to  surrender  to  him.  The  prophecy 
contained  in  the  ioth  and  nth  chapters  of  the  prophet's 
book  seems  to  have  been  uttered  when  the  implacable 
Assyrian  was  already  at  Nob,  within  a  day's  journey 
only  of  Jerusalem.  We  reproduce  the  prophet's  exact 
words,  in  order  that  the  reader  may  the  better  appreciate 
the  force  of  the  argument  here  : — 

Ho  Assyrian,  the  rod  of  Mine  anger,  the  staff  in  whose  hand  is 
Mine  indignation!  I  will  send  him  against  a  profane  nation,  and 
against  the  people  of  My  wrath  will  I  give  him  a  charge,  to  take  the 
spoil,  and  to  take  the  prey,  and  to  tread  them  down  like  the  mire  of 
the  streets.  Howbeit  he  meaneth  not  so,  neither  doth  his  heart 
think  so;  but  it  is  in  his  heart  to  destroy,  and  to  cut  off  nations  not 
a  few.  For  he  saith,  Are  not  my  princes  all  of  them  kings  ?  Is  not 
Calno  as  Carchemish  ?  is  not  Hamath  as  Arpad  ?  is  not  Samaria  as 
Damascus  ?  As  my  hand  hath  found  the  kingdoms  of  the  idols, 
whose  graven  images  did  excel  them  of  Jerusalem  and  of  Samaria; 

1  See  Is.  xx.  i. 


56  ASSYRIA. 

shall  I  not,  as  I  have  done  unto  Samaria  and  her  idols,  so  do  to 
Jerusalem  and  her  idols  ? 

Wherefore  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  when  the  Lord  hath  per- 
formed His  whole  work  upon  Mount  Zion  and  on  Jerusalem,  I  will 
punish  the  fruit  of  the  stout  heart  of  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  the 
glory  of  his  high  looks.  For  he  hath  said,  By  the  strength  of  my 
hand  I  have  done  it,  and  by  my  wisdom;  for  I  am  prudent:  and  I 
have  removed  the  bounds  of  the  peoples,  and  have  robbed  their 
treasures,  and  I  have  brought  down  as  a  valiant  man  them  that  sit 
on  thrones :  and  my  hand  hath  found  as  a  nest  the  riches  of  the 
peoples;  and  as  one  gathereth  eggs  that  are  forsaken,  have  I 
gathered  all  the  earth :  and  there  was  none  that  moved  the  wing, 
or  that  opened  the  mouth,  or  chirped.  Shall  the  axe  boast  itself 
against  him  that  heweth  therewith  ?  shall  the  saw  magnify  itself 
against  him  that  shaketh  it  ?  as  if  a  rod  should  shake  them  that 
lift  it  up,  or  as  if  a  staff  should  lift  up  him  that  is  not  wood. 

Therefore  shall  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts,  send  among  his  fat 
ones  leanness  ;  and  under  his  glory  there  shall  be  kindled  a  burning 
like  the  burning  of  fire.  And  the  light  of  Israel  shall  be  for  a  fire, 
and  his  Holy  One  for  a  flame :  and  it  shall  burn  and  devour  his 
thorns  and  his  briers  in  one  day.  And  he  shall  consume  the 
glory  of  his  forest,  and  of  his  fruitful  field,  both  soul  and  body: 
and  it  shall  be  as  when  a  standardbearer  fainteth.  And  the 
remnant  of  the  trees  of  his  forest  shall  be  few,  that  a  child  may 
write  them. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  the  remnant  of  Israel, 
and  they  that  are  escaped  of  the  house  of  Jacob,  shall  no  more 
again  stay  upon  him  that  smote  them ;  but  shall  stay  upon  the 
Lord,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  in  truth.  A  remnant  shall  return, 
even  the  remnant  of  Jacob,  unto  the  mighty  God.  For  though  thy 
people  Israel  be  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  only  a  remnant  of  them  shall 
return :  a  consumption  is  determined,  overflowing  with  righteous- 
ness. For  a  consummation,  and  that  determined,  shall  the  Lord, 
the  Lord  of  hosts,  make  in  the  midst  of  all  the  earth. 

Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts,  O  My  people 
that  dwellest  in  Zion,  be  not  afraid  of  the  Assyrian:  though  he 
smite  thee  with  the  rod,  and  lift  up  his  staff  against  thee,  after  the 
manner  of  Egypt.  For  yet  a  very  little  while,  and  the  indignation 
shall  be  accomplished,  and  Mine  anger,  in  their  destruction.     And 


ASSYRIA.  57 

the  Lord  of  hosts  shall  stir  up  against  him  a  scourge,  as  in  the 
slaughter  of  Midian  at  the  rock  of  Oreb  :  and  his  rod  shall  be  over 
the  sea,  and  he  shall  lift  it  up  after  the  manner  of  Egypt.  And  it 
shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  his  burden  shall  depart  from  off 
thy  shoulder,  and  his  yoke  from  off  thy  neck,  and  the  yoke  shall  be 
destroyed  because  of  the  anointing. 

He  is  come  to  Aiath,  he  is  passed  through  Migron ;  at  Mich- 
mash  he  layeth  up  his  baggage :  they  are  gone  over  the  pass  ;  they 
have  taken  up  their  lodging  at  Geba :  Ramah  trembleth  ;  Gibeah 
of  Saul  is  fled.  Cry  aloud  with  thy  voice,  O  daughter  of  Gallim! 
hearken,  O  Laishah!  O  thou  poor  Anathoth!  Madmenah  is  a 
fugitive ;  the  inhabitants  of  Gebim  gather  themselves  to  flee.  This 
very  day  shall  he  halt  at  Nob  :  he  shaketh  his  hand  at  the  mount 
of  the  daughter  of  Zion,  the  hill  of  Jerusalem. 

Behold,  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts,  shall  lop  the  boughs  with 
terror:  and  the  high  ones  of  stature  shall  be  hewn  down,  and  the 
lofty  shall  be  brought  low.  And  he  shall  cut  down  the  thickets  of 
the  forest  with  iron,  and  Lebanon  shall  fall  by  a  mighty  one. 

And  there  shall  come  forth  a  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse,  and 
a  branch  out  of  his  roots  shall  bear  fruit :  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
shall  rest  upon  him,  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the 
spirit  of  counsel  and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the  fear 
of  the  Lord  ;  and  his  delight  shall  be  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord :  and 
he  shall  not  judge  after  the  sight  of  his  eyes,  neither  reprove  after 
the  hearing  of  his  ears:  but  with  righteousness  shall  he  judge  the 
poor,  and  reprove  with  equity  for  the  meek  of  the  earth :  and  he 
shall  smite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of  his  mouth,  and  with  the  breath 
of  his  lips  shall  he  slay  the  wicked.  And  righteousness  shall  be  the 
girdle  of  his  loins,  and  faithfulness  the  girdle  of  his  reins.  And  the 
wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with 
the  kid  ;  and  the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fading  together ; 
and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them.  And  the  cow  and  the  bear  shall 
feed;  their  young  ones  shall  lie  down  together:  and  the  lion  shall 
eat  straw  like  the  ox.  And  the  sucking  child  shall  play  on  the  hole 
of  the  asp,  and  the  weaned  child  shall  put  his  hand  on  the  basilisk's 
den.  They  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  My  holy  mountain :  for 
the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  the  root  of  Jesse, 


58  ASSYRIA. 

which  standeth  for  an  ensign  of  the  peoples,  unto  him  shall  the 
nations  seek ;  and  his  resting-place  shall  be  glorious. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  the  Lord  shall  set  His 
hand  again  the  second  time  to  recover  the  remnant  of  His  people, 
which  shall  remain,  from  Assyria,  and  from  Egypt,  and  from  Pa- 
thros,  and  from  Cush,  and  from  Elam,  and  from  Shinar,  and  from 
Hamath,  and  from  the  islands  of  the  sea.  And  He  shall  set  up  an 
ensign  for  the  nations,  and  shall  assemble  the  outcasts  of  Israel,  and 
gather  together  the  dispersed  of  Judah  from  the  four  corners  of  the 
earth.  The  envy  also  of  Ephraim  shall  depart,  and  they  that  vex 
Judah  shall  be  cut  off:  Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah,  and  Judah 
shall  not  vex  Ephraim.  And  they  shall  fly  down  upon  the  shoulder 
of  the  Philistines  on  the  west ;  together  shall  they  spoil  the  children 
of  the  east:  they  shall  put  forth  their  hand  upon  Edom  and  Moab; 
and  the  children  of  Ammon  shall  obey  them.  And  the  Lord  shall 
utterly  destroy  the  tongue  of  the  Egyptian  sea ;  and  with  his 
scorching  wind  shall  He  shake  His  hand  over  the  River,  and  shall 
smite  it  into  seven  streams,  and  cause  men  to  march  over  dryshod. 
And  there  shall  be  an  high  way  for  the  remnant  of  His  people, 
which  shall  remain,  from  Assyria;  like  as  there  was  for  Israel  in 
the  day  that  he  came  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt. 

Now  this  description  cannot  well  apply  to  the  later 
Assyrian  advance  upon  Jerusalem  in  the  time  of  Sen- 
nacherib ;  this  was  made  from  the  south-west,  from  the 
direction  of  Lachish  and  Libnah,  not  from  the  north-east, 
along  the  high  road  which  led  from  Syria  and  Samaria, 
and  conducted  an  invading  army  past  Michmash  and 
Ramah,  Anathoth  and  Nob.  Moreover  the  tone  adopted 
by  Isaiah  is  very  different  from  that  of  the  prophecy  he 
was  commissioned  to  deliver  when  the  hosts  of  Sen- 
nacherib were  threatening  the  sacred  city.  Then  Heze- 
kiah  and  his  people  were  encouraged  by  the  promise 
that  the  enemy  should  be  utterly  overthrown ;  now,  on 
the  contrary,  the  prophet  declares  that  the  Assyrian  is 
the  rod  of  God's  anger,  and  that  though  a  remnant  shall 
return,  and  the  oppressor  be  punished,  it  shall  be  only 


ASSYRIA.  59 

when  the  measure  of  God's  chastisement  of  His  people 
is  complete,  when  they  have  been  trodden  down  like 
mire  in  the  streets,  and  when  the  high  ones  of  stature 
have  been  hewn  down.  The  contents  of  the  prophecy 
also  point  unmistakeably  to  the  age  of  Sargon.  The 
Assyrian  king  is  made  to  boast  of  his  conquests  of  Car- 
chemish  and  Hamath,  of  Arpad,  Damascus  and  Samaria, 
all  of  them  achievements  of  Sargon,  not  of  his  son  Sen- 
nacherib. 

The  'burden'  contained  in  the  22nd  chapter  would 
also  seem  to  belong  to  the  age  of  Sargon.  Again  we 
reproduce  Isaiah's  words  : — 

The  burden  of  the  valley  of  vision. 

What  aileth  thee  now,  that  thou  art  wholly  gone  up  to  the 
housetops  ?  O  thou  that  art  full  of  shoutings,  a  tumultuous  city, 
a  joyous  town ;  thy  slain  are  not  slain  with  the  sword,  neither  are 
they  dead  in  battle.  All  thy  rulers  fled  away  together,  they  were 
bound  by  the  archers :  all  that  were  found  of  thee  were  bound  to- 
gether, they  fled  afar  off.  Therefore  said  I,  Look  away  from  me,  I 
will  weep  bitterly ;  labour  not  to  comfort  me,  for  the  spoiling  of  the 
daughter  of  my  people.  For  it  is  a  day  of  discomfiture,  and  of 
treading  down,  and  of  perplexity,  from  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
in  the  valley  of  vision ;  a  breaking  down  of  the  walls,  and  a  crying 
to  the  mountains.  And  Elam  bare  the  quiver,  with  chariots  of  men 
and  horsemen  ;  and  Kir  uncovered  the  shield.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
that  thy  choicest  valleys  were  full  of  chariots,  and  the  horsemen  set 
themselves  in  array  at  the  gate.  And  he  took  away  the  covering  of 
Judah ;  and  thou  didst  look  in  that  day  to  the  armour  in  the  house 
of  the  forest.  And  ye  saw  the  breaches  of  the  city  of  David,  that 
they  were  many :  and  ye  gathered  together  the  waters  of  the  lower 
pool.  And  ye  numbered  the  houses  of  Jerusalem,  and  ye  brake 
down  the  houses  to  fortify  the  wall.  Ye  made  also  a  reservoir 
between  the  two  walls  for  the  water  of  the  old  pool :  but  ye  looked 
not  unto  him  that  had  done  this,  neither  had  ye  respect  unto  him 
that  fashioned  it  long  ago.  And  in  that  day  did  the  Lord,  the 
Lord  of  hosts,  call  to  weeping,  and  to  mourning,  and  to  baldness, 


60  ASSYRIA. 

and  to  girding  with  sackcloth  :  and  behold,  joy  and  gladness,  slay- 
ing oxen  and  killing  sheep,  eating  flesh  and  drinking  wine  :  let  us 
eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  shall  die.  And  the  Lord  of  hosts 
revealed  Himself  in  mine  ears,  Surely  this  iniquity  shall  not  be 
purged  from  you  till  ye  die,  saith  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

Here  it  is  revealed  to  Isaiah  that  the  iniquity  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  shall  not  be  purged  until  they  die, 
and  all  the  agonies  of  a  protracted  siege  are  represented 
as  having  been  already  endured.  The  rulers  of  the  city 
have  fled  from  the  foe,  its  streets  are  full  of  the  corpses 
of  those  who  have  died  of  famine,  the  hosts  of  Assyria 
occupy  the  valleys  around  it,  and  the  people  in  their 
despair  have  drowned  their  fears  in  a  last  carousal, 
saying,  'Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.' 
No  part  of  this  picture  is  applicable  to  the  campaign 
of  Sennacherib,  when  the  Lord  defended  His  city,  so 
that  the  Assyrian  shot  not  an  arrow  nor  cast  a  bank 
against  it.  We  can  best  explain  the  prophecy  and  the 
occasion  that  called  it  forth  by  combining  the  words 
of  Isaiah  with  those  of  Sargon.  and  concluding  that 
Sargon's  conquest  of  Judah  was  not  accomplished  with- 
out the  siege  and  capture  of  its  capital.  Ten  years, 
therefore,  before  the  campaign  of  Sennacherib,  Jerusalem 
had  felt  the  presence  of  an  Assyrian  army,  a  fact  which 
serves  to  explain  how  it  is  that  'the  14th  year'  of  Heze- 
kiah  has  slipped  into  the  text  in  Is.  xxxvi.  1  (2  Kings 
xviii.  13)  in  place  of '  the  24th.'  It  is  remarkable,  never- 
theless, that  so  important  an  event  should  be  unrecorded 
in  the  Book  of  Kings.  Whatever  the  explanation 
of  this  may  be,  the  incident  is  a  curious  and  most 
interesting  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  the  recently 
discovered  and  translated  Assyrian  records  tend  to  con- 
firm and  add  to  the  Biblical  historical  records. 


ASSYRIA.  6 1 

The  fate  of  Merodach-baladan  was  now  sealed.  The 
year  after  the  suppression  of  the  revolt  in  the  west 
(B.C.  710),  Sargon  hurled  the  whole  power  of  the  As- 
syrian empire  against  Babylonia.  The  Babylonian  king 
made  a  vain  effort  to  resist.  His  allies  from  Elam  were 
driven  back  to  their  mountains,  and  Merodach-baladan 
himself  was  compelled  to  retreat  to  his  ancestral  marshes, 
leaving  Babylon  in  the  hands  of  the  conqueror.  Sargon 
now  took  the  title  of  king  of  Babylonia  ;  and  though 
Merodach-baladan  once  more  entered  Babylon  on  the 
news  of  Sargon's  death,  his  second  reign  was  only  of 
six  months'  duration,  and  Sennacherib  eventually  drove 
him  out  of  the  marshes  where  he  had  taken  refuge,  and 
forced  him  to  find  a  new  home  on  the  shores  of  Elam. 
Even  here,  however,  his  followers  were  pursued  by  their 
merciless  foe.  In  B.C.  697  Sennacherib  manned  a  fleet 
with  Phoenician  sailors,  and  after  pouring  out  libations 
to  the  gods  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  sailed  to  the  town  the 
Chaldean  prince  had  built,  and  utterly  destroyed  it. 
Babylonia  might  break  from  time  to  time  into  revolt, 
but  after  the  fall  of  Merodach-baladan  it  ceased  to  be 
formidable. 

Sargon  was  murdered  in  B.C.  705,  and  succeeded  by 
his  son  Sennacherib.  Brought  up  in  the  purple,  Senna- 
cherib soon  showed  that  he  was  made  of  very  different 
stuff  from  his  father.  Like  the  Persian  Xerxes,  he  was 
weak  and  vainglorious,  cowardly  under  reverse,  cruel 
and  boastful  in  success.  Whether  it  was  that  his  cha- 
racter was  already  known,  or  that  the  death  of  his  father 
had  inspired  the  vanquished  enemies  of  Assyria  with 
new  hopes,  we  cannot  say ;  certain  it  is  that  not  only 
in  Babylonia  but  also  in  the  West  the  murder  of  Sargon 
was  the  signal  for  revolt  against  the  Assyrian  rule.    Four 


62  ASSYRIA. 

years  elapsed,  however,  before  Sennacherib  was  ready  to 
march  against  the  rebels  in  Palestine.  In  B.C.  701  the 
campaign  took  place. 

Hezekiah  had  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  con- 
federacy which  included  Phoenicia,  Ammon,  Moab,  and 
Edom,  and  had  the  promised  support  of  Tirhakah,  the 
Ethiopian  king  of  Egypt.  His  first  act  had  been  to 
secure  the  cities  of  the  Philistines,  always  a  thorn  in  the 
side  of  the  Jewish  kings.  Padi,  the  king  of  Ekron,  who 
led  the  Assyrian  party,  was  carried  to  Jerusalem  and 
there  thrown  into  chains,  while  Ashkelon  was  placed 
under  the  government  of  a  certain  Zedekiah,  whose  name 
seems  to  imply  his  Jewish  origin. 

Sennacherib  first  fell  upon  the  cities  of  the  Phoenician 
coast.  Sidon  and  other  towns  surrendered,  and  the 
Sidonian  prince  fled  to  the  island  of  Cyprus.  Pedael  of 
Ammon,  Chemosh-nadab  of  Moab,  and  Melech-ram  of 
Edom  came  to  offer  homage  and  ask  forgiveness  from 
the  Assyrian  king,  whose  army  now  advanced  to  the 
south  along  the  sea-shore.  Leaving  Jerusalem  for  the 
present,  Sennacherib  attacked  Ashkelon,  sent  Zedekiah 
a  prisoner  to  Nineveh,  and  placed  the  city  under  a  vassal 
governor.  The  south  of  Judah  was  next  ravaged,  200,150 
of  its  inhabitants  carried  into  captivity,  and  the  im- 
portant town  of  Lachish  besieged  and  taken.  The  news 
of  its  capture  reduced  Hezekiah  to  despair.  He  sent 
ambassadors  to  the  Assyrian  camp,  confessing  that  he 
had  'offended,'  and  offering  to  bear  whatever  burdens 
Sennacherib  might  impose  upon  him.  Padi  was  sent 
back  to  Ekron,  whose  priests  and  nobles  were  put  to 
death,  and  a  gift  of  30  talents  of  gold  and  800  (or 
according  to  another  standard  of  reckoning  300)  talents 
of  silver  was  offered  by  Hezekiah,  along  with  the  men 


ASSYRIA.  6$ 

of  his  body-guard,  his  eunuchs,  his  dancing-men  and 
dancing-women,  and  the  accumulated  treasures  of  his 
palace.  But  Sennacherib  was  inexorable.  He  accepted 
the  gifts  indeed,  but  demanded  besides  that  Hezekiah 
should  surrender  himself  and  his  city.  Nothing  would 
suffice  him  save  the  possession  of  the  strong  fortress  of 
Jerusalem  and  its  conversion  into  the  seat  of  an  Assyrian 
satrap. 

To  this  demand  Hezekiah  refused  to  accede.  The 
advance  of  his  ally  Tirhakah  from  Egypt  still  held  out  a 
hope  that  the  terrible  invader  might  be  compelled  to 
return  to  his  own  land.  That  hope,  however,  was  shat- 
tered at  Eltekeh,  where  a  battle  took  place  which  ended 
in  the  rout  of  the  Egyptians,  and  nothing  apparently  in- 
tervened any  longer  between  Hezekiah  and  his  enemy 
except  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  Humanly  speaking,  the 
further  resistance  of  the  Jewish  king  was  an  act  of  folly 
and  despair. 

So  at  least  thought  Sennacherib  and  his  officers,  and 
a  letter  was  despatched  to  Hezekiah  requiring  his  sub- 
mission, and  declaring  that  the  power  of  the  Assyrian 
monarch  was  mightier  than  that  of  the  God  of  Israel. 
But  the  letter  brought  with  it  the  doom  of  its  sender. 
Hezekiah  entered  the  temple,  and  there  on  his  knees, 
with  the  letter  outspread  before  him,  asked  God  to 
avenge  the  insult  hurled  at  Him  by  the  heathen,  and  to 
defend  His  city  and  people.  The  prayer  was  heard  ; 
and  Isaiah  was  commissioned  to  declare  that  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel  would  turn  the  Assyrian  back  by  the  way 
he  had  come,  he  should  not  enter  Jerusalem  '  nor  shoot 
an  arrow  there,  nor  come  before  it  with  shields,  nor  cast 
a  bank  against  it '  (Is.  xxxvii.  33). 

The  promise  was  not  long  in  being  fulfilled.     '  The 


64  ASSYRIA. 

angel  of  the  Lord  went  forth,  and  smote  in  the  camp  of 
the  Assyrians  a  hundred  and  fourscore  and  five  thou- 
sand.' Sennacherib  fled  in  haste  from  the  scene  of  the 
disaster,  carrying  with  him  the  prisoners  and  spoil  he 
had  swept  from  the  south  of  Judah,  along  with  the  gifts 
with  which  Hezekiah  had  vainly  essayed  to  buy  off  his 
threatened  attack.  '  The  remnant '  of  Judah  was  saved, 
not  by  the  help  of  the  Egyptian  king,  not  by  alliances 
with  the  kingdoms  of  the  West,  not  even  by  its  own 
arm  of  flesh,  but  by  the  interposition  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts. 

Sennacherib  never  returned  to  Palestine.  His  rebel- 
lious vassal  was  allowed  to  conclude  the  five  years  that 
were  left  of  his  reign  in  peace.  Jerusalem  continued  to 
be  independent  up  to  the  time  of  Hezekiah's  death. 
The  year  after  his  signal  overthrow  in  Palestine  the 
Assyrian  monarch  was  occupied  with  affairs  in  Babylonia. 
The  next  year  found  him  in  Cilicia,  and  during  the 
twenty  years  which  elapsed  between  the  Jewish  cam- 
paign and  his  murder  in  B.C.  681  we  never  hear  of  his 
sending  forth  any  more  armies  to  the  West.  Indeed, 
the  troubles  and  outbreaks  that  were  constantly  taking 
place  in  Babylonia  kept  him  employed  in  the  south, 
until  he  finally  crushed  all  further  opposition  there  by 
utterly  destroying  Babylon  and  choking  the  river 
Araxes  with  its  ruins. 

The  murder  of  Sennacherib  seems  to  have  been  occa- 
sioned by  the  favour  he  showed  to  his  son  Esar-haddon. 
Esar-haddon,  however,  justified  this  favour  not  only  by 
defeating  the  parricides  and  their  Armenian  allies  in  a 
battle  which  decided  the  succession  to  the  Assyrian 
throne,  but  also  by  the  ability  he  displayed  during  the 
course  of  his  reign.    As  a  military  commander  he  was  in 


ASSYRIA.  6$ 

nowise  inferior  to  his  grandfather  Sargon ;  as  a  civil 
administrator  he  proved  himself  the  best  of  the  Assyrian 
kings.  His  firm  and  conciliatory  government  effected  what 
the  wars  of  his  predecessors  had  failed  to  achieve.  He 
rebuilt  Babylon,  making  it  the  second  city  of  the  empire, 
and  induced  the  Babylonians  to  submit  quietly  to  his 
rule.  The  princes  of  the  West  equally  returned  to  their 
allegiance  to  Assyria  ;  and  although  Manasseh  of  Judah 
was  thrown  into  chains  for  disaffection  he  was  subse- 
quently released  and  restored  to  his  kingdom1.  From 
this  time  onwards  there  was  no  further  attempt  at  revolt 
on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  kings ;  they  acknowledged  the 
supremacy  of  Assyria  and  paid  their  annual  tribute,  in 
return  for  which  they  were  allowed  to  exercise  undis- 
puted sway  over  their  Jewish  subjects.  But  the  Assyrian 
monarchs  were  secure  against  the  hostility  of  the  fortress 
of  Jerusalem,  and  could  use  it  as  a  base  of  operations  in 
the  event  of  a  war  with  Egypt. 

This  war,  in  fact,  was  one  of  the  leading  features  of 
Esar-haddon's  reign,  and  ended  in  the  Assyrian  con- 
quest of  the  country,  which  was  partitioned  into  twenty 
satrapies.  The  war,  as  we  have  seen,  seems  to  be  foretold 
in  outline  in  the  19th  chapter  of  Isaiah.  There  God  an- 
nounces that  He  will  set  the  Egyptians  one  against  the 
other,  '  city  against  city,  kingdom  against  kingdom,'  and 
will  'give  them  over  into  the  hand  of  a  cruel  lord.'  The 
prediction  was  literally  fulfilled.  The  satrapies  or  king- 
doms established  by  the  Assyrians  were  constantly 
rising  against  their  suzerain  and  warring  against  one 
another  ;  Tirhakah  from  time  to  time  emerged  from  his 
retreat  in  Ethiopia  to  lead  the  opposition  against  foreign 
rule,  and  the  Assyrian  king  was  obliged  eventually  to 

1  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  11— 13. 
E 


66  ASSYRIA. 

take  a  terrible  vengeance  on  Thebes  or  No-Amun,  the 
ancient  capital  of  Southern  Egypt.  Judah,  from  whence 
the  invading  armies  poured,  became  a  name  of  terror  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Egypt,  and  a  day  came  when  Judah 
and  Egypt  and  Assyria  alike  formed  parts  of  a  single 
empire  1. 

With  the  Assyrian  conquest  of  Egypt  Judah  ceased  to 
occupy  the  important  position  it  had  once  held  between 
the  two  rival  powers  of  the  ancient  world.  For  awhile, 
therefore,  its  annals  were  uneventful.  It  was  not  until 
the  decay  of  Assyria  enabled  the  Egyptians  to  recover 
their  independence  and  to  revive  the  glories  of  their 
ancient  dynasties,  that  the  rulers  of  Jerusalem  were  once 
more  called  upon  to  play  a  part  in  the  politics  of  Western 
Asia.  When  the  final  crash  came,  and  the  Babylonian 
empire  of  Nebuchadnezzar  arose  upon  the  ruins  of 
Nineveh,  Judah  again  found  herself  wedged  in  between 
two  great  hostile  powers.  But  things  had  changed  since 
the  days  of  Hezekiah  and  Isaiah.  Nebuchadnezzar  was 
a  more  formidable  foe  than  Sennacherib  had  been,  and 
Jerusalem  no  longer  had  the  choice  of  remaining  neutral 
in  the  contest  between  Babylon  and  Egypt.  It  had  to 
take  its  place  on  the  one  side  or  on  the  other,  and  that, 
too,  not  as  a  free  state,  but  as  a  dependency  which  could 
call  upon  its  suzerain  to  shield  it  from  attack. 

1  Compare  the  prediction  in  Is.  xix.  1 7. 


CHAPTER     IV. 

SYRIA   AND   ISRAEL. 

The  kingdom  of  Syria,  like  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  had 
been  carved  out  of  the  empire  of  David.  Already  in 
Solomon's  lifetime  the  Syrian  Rezon  had  established 
himself  at  Damascus,  and  there  founded  a  monarchy 
which  soon  became  formidable  to  its  neighbours.  It 
was  more  particularly  with  the  adjoining  kingdom  of 
Israel  that  Damascus  came  into  conflict.  In  the  time  of 
Baasha,  Benhadad  of  Damascus  made  common  cause 
with  Asa  against  the  northern  kingdom,  and  the  kings 
of  Israel  from  Ahab  onwards  were  constantly  at  war 
with  the  Syrian  princes.  It  was  only  when  a  common 
danger  threatened  Damascus  and  Israel  alike  that  we 
find  Ahab  sending  2000  chariots  and  10,000  men  to 
Hadadezer  of  Damascus,  to  assist  him  against  Assyrian 
attack  ;  and,  though  the  Israelites  had  by  treaty  a 
bazaar  in  the  Syrian  capital x,  it  required  a  renewal  of 
the  Assyrian  invasions  to  unite  Israel  and  Syria  again. 
Indeed,  the  capture  and  plunder  of  Damascus  by  the 
Assyrians  in  B.  C.  804  was  taken  advantage  of  by  Jero- 
boam II  to  'restore  the  coast  of  Israel  from  the  entering 
of  Hamath  unto  the  sea  of  the  plain.' 

But  the  revival  of  Assyrian  power  under  Tiglath- 
pileser  brought  with  it  an  important  change  in  the  political 

1  1  Kings  xx.  34.     See  also  Amos  iii.  12. 
E  2 


68  SYRIA   AND  ISRAEL. 

relations  of  the  West.  The  league  between  Syria  and 
Israel,  brought  about  by  the  invasion  of  Shalmaneser  II 
in  the  time  of  Ahab,  was  renewed  by  Rezon  \  the  last 
king  of  Damascus,  and  Pekah,  the  Israelitish  usurper.  It 
was  again  the  pressure  of  an  Assyrian  invasion  which 
created  the  alliance.  The  tribute  Tiglath-pileser  had 
forced  upon  Menahem  proved  that  a  power  more 
dangerous  even  than  that  of  Shalmaneser  had  arisen  in 
the  East,  and  that  it  was  time  for  the  princes  of  the 
West  to  save  themselves  from  the  threatening  attack  by 
common  action. 

The  kingdom  of  Israel  had  been  founded  by  usurpation, 
and  its  history  is  that  of  a  line  of  usurpers.  The  dynasty 
of  its  founder  lasted  but  a  short  while.  His  son  was 
murdered  during  the  siege  of  a  Philistine  fortress  by  one 
of  his  own  generals,  who  thereupon  seized  the  crown. 
The  precedent  thus  set  was  followed  time  after  time. 
Murder  and  usurpation  led  the  way  to  the  throne. 
Omri  and  Jehu  alone  contrived  to  hand  down  their 
power  for  more  than  one  generation,  and  with  the 
murder  of  Zechariah,  the  last  descendant  of  Jehu,  all 
semblance  of  any  other  title  to  the  crown  than  that  of 
successful  revolt  came  to  an  end.  The  government  of 
Samaria  became  the  prey  of  the  strongest  or  most 
popular  commander. 

Like  the  second  Assyrian  empire,  therefore,  the 
Israelitish  kingdom  was  founded  on  military  violence, 
but,  unlike  the  second  Assyrian  empire,  it  produced  no 

1  The  Assyrian  inscriptions  show  that  we  must  read  Rezon  instead  of 
Rezin  in  those  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  in  which  the  Syrian  king 
is  named.  Rezon  had  been  the  name  of  the  founder  of  the  kingdom  of 
Damascus  (i  Kings  xi.  23),  and  we  find  the  same  interchange  of  u  or  0  and  i 
in  the  names  of  Tou  (1  Chron.  xviii.  9)  by  the  side  of  Toi,  and  of  Huram 
(2  Chron.  ii.  11)  by  the  side  of  Hiram. 


SYRIA   AND  ISRAEL.  69 

Sargon  to  establish  a  permanent  dynasty.  It  was  the 
creation  of  the  army  rather  than  of  the  people  ;  its  rulers 
could  claim  none  of  the  prestige  and  respect  that  comes 
from  ancient  descent,  or  show  any  better  title  for  their 
power  than  that  of  successful  rebellion.  It  is  little 
wonder,  therefore,  that  they  found  themselves  at  the 
mercy  of  every  revolution  in  the  army,  and  that  an 
ambitious  or  discontented  general  considered  he  had 
as  good  a  right  to  the  crown  as  its  actual  possessor. 
The  result  was  constant  change  and  civil  war,  a  develop- 
ment of  the  military  spirit  which  absorbed  all  else,  and 
the  exaltation  of  the  military  commander  above  his  king. 
The  bond  which  bound  the  tribes  together  ceased  to  be 
either  national  or  religious,  and  became  purely  military. 
It  was  to  the  general  of  the  army,  rather  than  to  the 
representative  of  the  nation  and  its  faith,  that  obedience 
was  paid.  When  the  military  organisation  was  broken 
up  which  had  connected  them  together,  the  Israelitish 
tribes  at  once  fell  apart ;  they  had  no  national  life,  no 
traditions  of  glorious  deeds  achieved  under  an  ancient 
line  of  kings,  no  religious  worship  associated  with  the 
name  of  a  royal  house  and  a  central  shrine.  The 
overthrow  of  Samaria  by  the  Assyrians  meant  the 
complete  obliteration  of  the  Israelitish  tribes  as  a  nation. 
Those  who  were  carried  into  exile  were  lost  among  the 
peoples  in  the  midst  of  whom  they  were  settled  ;  those 
who  remained  at  home  were  absorbed  into  the  older 
Canaanite  population  or  else  united  themselves  with  the 
Jews1. 

1  Thus  in  St.  Luke  ii.  36,  it  is  stated  that  Anna  was  '  of  the  tribe  of  Aser,' 
and  we  learn  from  2  Chron.  xxx..  xxxi.,  that  alter  the  overthrow  of  the  king- 
dom of  Samaria  '  all  Israel  '  was  united  with  Judah  in  a  common  govern- 
ment and  faith.  As  we  have  seen  above,  the  number  of  captives  carried  away 
from  Samaria  by  Sargon  was  but  small. 


JO  SYRIA  AND  ISRAEL. 

To  all  this  the  history  of  the  monarchy  of  Judah  offers 
a  complete  contrast.  Here  we  find  a  stable  government, 
an  unbroken  line  of  princes  who  traced  their  descent 
from  the  time-honoured  names  of  David  and  Solomon, 
and  a  religious  worship  that  had  its  seat  in  a  central 
sanctuary.  While  in  Israel  all  was  division,  in  Judah  all 
was  unity.  In  place  of  ten  different  tribes,  some  of 
whom  were  separated  from  the  others  by  the  valley  of 
the  Jordan,  Judah  formed  a  homogeneous  whole.  The 
tribe  of  Simeon  had  been  absorbed,  the  Levites  were 
a  religious  order,  and  the  differences  that  once  existed 
between  Judah  and  Benjamin  had  been  healed  by  the 
position  of  the  capital,  which  stood  partly  in  the  territory 
of  the  one,  and  partly  in  the  territory  of  the  other. 
Instead  of  the  military  revolutions  which  were  incessantly 
giving  new  dynasties  to  the  northern  kingdom,  the  sceptre 
of  Judah  was  quietly  handed  down  from  father  to  son.  In 
Judah  there  was  one  capital,  one  temple,  one  recognised 
form  of  faith ;  in  Israel,  on  the  contrary,  the  capital  was 
shifted  from  Shechem  to  Tirzah,  and  from  Tirzah  to 
Samaria  ;  there  were  at  least  two  rival  sanctuaries  at 
Dan  and  Beth-el,  and  the  worship  of  the  Baalim  of 
Canaan  struggled  for  the  mastery  against  a  corrupt 
worship  of  the  God  of  Israel. 

In  Judah,  moreover,  revolt  was  not  consecrated  by 
success  and  custom.  Around  the  royal  house  gathered 
all  the  memories  of  the  past,  and  each  generation  saw 
the  house  of  David  knit  by  closer  bonds  of  habit  and 
tradition  to  the  people  over  whom  it  ruled.  Nor  did  it 
stand  in  the  same  antagonism  to  the  prophets  and  the 
prophetical  schools  as  the  usurpers  of  the  Samaritan 
crown.  Ahab,  it  is  true,  had  his  prophets  who  prophesied 
to  him  smooth  things,  but  the  true  prophets  of  God  were 


SYA'/A    AND  ISRAEL.  7 1 

at  bitter  enmity  with  his  house,  and  an  Amos,  or  a  Hosea, 
though  they  might  be  born  in  the  kingdom  of  Israel, 
turned  their  eyes  not  to  their  own  land,  but  to  that  of 
Judah.  Ephraim,  says  Hosea,  compasseth  the  Lord 
'  about  with  lies,  and  the  house  of  Israel  with  deceit ;  but 
Judah  yet  ruleth  with  God,  and  is  faithful  with  the 
saints1.'  They  looked  forward  to  the  day  when  the 
children  of  Israel  should  '  return,  and  seek  the  Lord  their 
God,  and  David  their  king  V  Even  Judah,  however,  was 
not  wholly  free  from  the  disaffected  and  factious  :  no 
kingdom  has  ever  been,  more  especially  a  kingdom  of 
the  ancient  world.  From  time  to  time  the  weakness  or 
worthlessness  of  the  ruler  favoured  an  outbreak  of  dis- 
content, which  ended,  as  in  the  case  of  Amon,  with  the 
murder  of  the  reigning  prince.  But  even  in  such  a  case 
the  majority  of  the  nation  clung  loyally  to  their  royal 
house.  Amon  might  be  conspired  against  and  slain  by 
his  servants,  but  'the  people  of  the  land'  at  once 
punished  the  conspirators  and  set  the  son  of  the  mur- 
dered king  upon  his  father's  throne.  The  people  of 
Judah  had  not  learnt,  like  the  people  of  Israel,  that 
might  is  right ;  the  successful  usurpers  of  Samaria  would 
never  have  caused  their  title  to  be  acknowledged  in  the 
southern  kingdom. 

The  house  of  David  was  perhaps  never  so  weak,  had 
never  so  far  lost  its  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  people, 
as  at  the  time  when  Pekah  and  Rezon  formed  their 
league  against  the  encroachments  of  Assyria.  The 
leprosy  of  Uzziah,  which  cut  him  off  from  intercourse 
with  his  kind,  and  the  long  regency  of  Jotham,  had 
sapped  that  feeling  of  personal  loyalty  towards  the 
reigning  sovereign  which  is  so  necessary  to  an  Oriental 
1  Hosea  xi.  12.  *  Hosea  iii.  5. 


72  SYRIA   AND  ISRAEL. 

government.  There  was  no  visible  king  ruling  over  the 
nation  ;  the  real  king  was  invisible  to  his  subjects,  and 
though  his  representative  might  be  the  heir-apparent  he 
was  not  yet  invested  with  the  mysterious  power  and 
dignity  that  accompanied  the  name  of  king. 

Uzziah  must  have  died  but  a  very  short  while  before 
his  son  Jotham.  In  B.  c.  742  he  had  been  compelled  to 
purchase  peace  from  Tiglath-pileser  by  the  offer  of  sub- 
mission and  the  payment  of  tribute,  and  it  was  only 
eight  years  later,  in  B.C.  734,  that  his  grandson  Ahaz 
was  imploring  the  Assyrian  monarch  to  protect  him 
against  his  Syrian  and  Israelitish  foes.  Ahaz  was  but 
twenty  years  old  when  he  succeeded  his  father,  and  the 
respect  for  the  throne  which  had  been  weakened  by  the 
long  regency  of  Jotham  was  further  impaired  by  the 
youthful  age  of  his  son.  '  As  for  my  people,'  says  Isaiah  \ 
'  children  are  their  oppressors,  and  women  rule  over 
them.'  The  rule  of  the  harem  was  characteristic  of  the 
reign  of  a  young  prince. 

The  last  days  of  Jotham,  moreover,  had  been  disturbed 
by  the  approach  of  an  aggressive  war.  He  seems  to 
have  adhered  faithfully  to  his  father's  pact  with  Tiglath- 
pileser  ;  at  all  events,  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  alone 
among  the  populations  of  Palestine,  refused  to  take  part 
in  the  defensive  league  against  the  Assyrians.  Ammon 
and  Moab,  Edom  and  the  Philistines — who  were  ever  on 
the  watch  for  an  opportunity  of  shaking  off  the  govern- 
ment of  their  suzerain  the  Jewish  king — all  joined  the 
Syro-Israelitish  confederacy;  Judah  alone  stood  aloof. 
The  confederates,  accordingly,  determined  to  displace 
the  reigning  dynasty  and  to  substitute  for  it  a  creature 
of  their  own.     For  the  first  time  the  attack  made  upon 

1  Is.  iii.  12. 


SYRIA   AND  ISRAEL.  73 

Jndah  by  its  northern  neighbours  was  made  not  against 
the  country  itself,  but  against  its  rulers  ;  it  was  the  over- 
throw of  the  house  of  David,  not  the  conquest  of  Judah, 
which  was  the  object  they  had  in  view.  It  is  probable 
that  the  new  king  who  was  destined  for  the  Jewish  throne 
was  not  of  Jewish  extraction  ;  he  is  called  the  son  of 
Tabeel,  or  more  correctly  Tabel  (Isaiah  vii.  6),  and  the 
resemblance  of  this  name  to  that  of  the  Syrian  Tab- 
Rimmon  gives  colour  to  the  belief  that  he  was  one  of  the 
subjects  of  Rezon.  In  any  case,  if  once  he  could  have 
been  introduced  within  Jerusalem,  the  allies  would  have 
been  able  to  control  and  direct  the  policy  of  Judah. 

The  assailants  could  count  upon  the  support  of  a  party 
in  the  midst  of  Judah  itself.  Isaiah  (viii.  6)  denounces 
the  people  who  '  refuseth  the  waters  of  Shiloah  that  go 
softly,  and  rejoice  in  Rezin  and  Remaliah's  son,'  and 
declares  that  they  shall  be  punished  hereafter  by  the 
flood  of  the  Assyrian  invasion.  Those  who  had  been 
alienated  by  the  worthlessness  of  Ahaz  and  his  favourites, 
and  those  who  belonged  to  the  Egyptian  or  anti-Assyrian 
party,  all  favoured  the  designs  of  the  enemies  of  Ahaz. 
He  stood  in  the  way  of  their  joining  the  common  alliance 
with  Egypt  and  the  surrounding  nations  against  Assyria  ; 
his  rule  and  character  were  alike  contemptible,  and 
therefore  they  would  have  him  away.  But  the  mass  of 
the  people  stood  firm  ;  like  the  priests  and  prophets,  they 
tolerated  the  sins  and  follies  of  Ahaz  for  the  sake  of 
'  David  his  father,'  and  the  royal  house  of  which  he  was 
the  representative ;  and  they  refused  to  merge  their 
kingdom  and  nationality  in  the  heathen  populations  which 
dwelt  around  them.  Though  defeated  in  the  field,  the 
subjects  of  Ahaz  still  held  out  behind  the  strong  walls 
of  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  moment  of  extremest  danger 


74  SYRIA   AND  ISRAEL. 

Isaiah  went  forth  to  encourage  him  with  a  message  from 
the  Lord. 

The  position  of  Ahaz  was  indeed  a  perilous  one.  His 
forces  were  broken;  his  capital  was  threatened  with 
siege,  he  was  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  formidable 
enemies,  while  there  were  traitors  within  his  own  camp. 
We  need  not  wonder  if,  under  these  circumstances,  he  and 
his  councillors  hurried  to  Assyria  for  help.  It  was  on 
account  of  their  faithfulness  to  Tiglath-pileser  that  the 
troubles  they  were  encountering  had  come  upon  them, 
and  there  was  no  other  powerful  ally  to  whom  they 
could  turn.  Egypt  was  on  the  side  of  their  enemies  ;  in 
Palestine  itself  all  was  hostile. 

It  was  now  when  Ahaz  had  gone  forth  to  examine 
the  defences  of  Jerusalem  that  Isaiah  met  him  with  a 
message  from  the  God  of  Israel.  The  prophet  enjoined 
him  not  to  fear  nor  to  be  '  faint-hearted  for  the  two  tails 
of  the  smoking  firebrands'  of  Samaria  and  Syria;  the 
Syro-Israelitish  alliance  should  be  broken  up,  and 
Damascus  and  Ephraim  should  alike  be  destroyed.  All 
the  Jewish  king  was  required  to  do  was  to  remain 
'quiet';  God  would  see  that  the  confederacy  against 
him  should  not  succeed l. 

Ahaz,  however,  had  already  determined  upon  his 
policy.  He  had  too  little  faith  in  the  prophet's  message 
to  await  the  issue  in  trustful  confidence,  and  ambassadors 
had  already  been  despatched  to  the  Assyrian  monarch, 
calling  upon  him  to  succour  his  faithful  vassal.  Ahaz 
refused,  accordingly,  to  test  whether  or  not  the  words 
and  advice  of  Isaiah  were  from  the  Lord,  and  brought 
down  upon  himself  the  denunciation  of  the  doom  that 
his  faithlessness  had  merited.     Upon  him  and  his  house 

1  Is.  vii.  9. 


SYRIA   AND  ISRAEL.  75 

and  his  people  it  was  declared  the  Assyrian  should 
indeed  come,  not  as  a  deliverer,  but  as  an  oppressor, 
wasting  and  destroying  the  land  until  it  became  desolate 
of  inhabitants  and  devoid  of  cultivation. 

Advice  and  denunciation  were  equally  lost  upon  the 
king.  Ahaz  followed  his  own  policy,  and  acknowledged 
himself  the  vassal  of  Assyria.  '  I  am  thy  servant  and 
thy  son,'  were  the  words  his  ambassadors  were  instructed 
to  repeat  to  Tiglath-pileser,  and  the  act  of  homage  was 
sealed  by  the  heavy  tribute  they  carried  with  them. 
The  policy  at  first  seemed  successful.  The  enemies  of 
Ahaz  had  themselves  to  struggle  for  their  lives.  Damascus 
and  Samaria  were  besieged  and  taken,  and  both  Rezon 
and  Pekah  were  put  to  death.  The  Syro-Israelitish 
league  was  at  an  end  ;  its  authors  had  perished,  and 
Judah  had  never  again  any  reason  to  fear  either  Damascus 
or  Israel. 

But  in  bringing  the  Assyrian  upon  Palestine,  Ahaz 
had  not  only  placed  himself  and  his  successors  at  the 
feet  of  a  foreign  monarch  ;  he  had  opened  the  way  for 
Assyria  into  the  West,  and  had  caused  the  natural 
barriers  between  his  kingdom  and  the  Assyrian  power 
to  be  swept  away.  Henceforward  Judah  and  Assyria 
stood  face  to  face ;  there  was  no  longer  a  Damascus  or 
a  Samaria  to  bear  the  brunt  of  a  first  attack.  The  con- 
sequences of  the  policy  of  Ahaz  soon  made  themselves 
felt  in  the  reign  of  his  son,  and  brought  upon  Judah  the 
invasions  first  of  Sargon  and  then  of  Sennacherib.  His 
subjects  had  good  reason  to  regret  that  Ahaz  had  not 
listened  to  Isaiah,  and  awaited  in  quietude  and  faith  the 
issue  of  events. 

The  Syrian  kingdom  ceased  to  exist.  Its  population 
was  transported  to  Kir,  and  Damascus  became  the  seat 


70  SYRIA   AND  ISRAEL. 

of  an  Assyrian  satrap.     As  a  political  factor  Syria  was 
wiped  out  of  the  history  of  the  West. 

Samaria  was  of  less  importance  than  Damascus  in 
the  eyes  of  Tiglath-pileser.  Whereas  Damascus  stood  a 
two  years'  siege,  Samaria  fell  at  once  into  his  hands. 
It  is  therefore  probable  that  there  was  in  Israel  an 
Assyrian  party,  or  at  all  events  a  party  opposed  to 
Pekah,  the  leader  of  which  was  Hoshea.  While,  there- 
fore. Pekah  was  executed,  and  the  trans-Jordanic  tribes, 
as  being  nearest  to  Damascus,  were  carried  into  captivity, 
the  kingdom  of  Samaria  was  allowed  to  continue  under 
the  government  of  Hoshea.  But  Hoshea  soon  found 
his  position  as  a  tributary  vassal  of  Assyria  too  irksome 
to  be  endured.  The  death  of  Tiglath-pileser  seemed  a 
favourable  opportunity  for  throwing  off  the  yoke  and  for 
turning  to  Egypt  for  support.  The  Phoenician  cities 
asserted  their  independence  at  the  same  time,  and 
Shalmaneser  the  Assyrian  king  besieged  Tyre  during 
all  the  five  years  of  his  reign  without  success.  He  was, 
however,  more  successful  in  Israel.  Hoshea  was  deposed 
and  thrown  into  chains,  and  the  Israelitish  throne  re- 
mained vacant  for  ever.  For  three  years  longer  the 
governing  classes  of  Samaria  held  out,  in  the  vain  hope 
of  Egyptian  succour  ;  Samaria  fell,  as  Damascus  had 
fallen  before,  and  the  kingdom  of  Jeroboam,  like  the 
kingdom  of  Syria,  passed  away.  It  would  appear  that 
more  than  once  subsequently  its  inhabitants  attempted 
to  free  themselves  from  Assyrian  authority.  The 
colonists  from  Hamath  and  Babylonia  could  not  have 
settled  in  the  country  until  after  Sargon's  conquest  of 
Hamath  in  B.C.  720,  and  of  Babylonia  in  B.C.  710;  and 
we  gather  from  Ezra  iv.  2.  10.  that  Asnapper  or  Assur- 
bani-pal,  the  son  of  Esar-haddon,  planted  other  colonists 


SYRIA  AND  ISRAEL.  J  J 

from  Elam  there  at  a  still  later  date.  It  was  then  that 
the  prediction  in  Isaiah  vii.  8  found  its  final  accomplish- 
ment;  'within  threescore  and  five  years'  after  the  assault 
upon  Judah,  Ephraim  was  broken  and  ceased  to  be  a 
people.  In  the  closing  days  of  the  Assyrian  empire, 
when  the  central  authority  had  grown  feeble,  and  could 
no  longer  assert  its  power  in  the  distant  dependencies, 
we  find  Josiah  exercising  his  sway  over  what  had  once 
been  the  territory  of  the  revolted  tribes.  In  the  evening 
of  the  house  of  David  the  kingdom  of  David  and  Solomon 
was  again  restored  to  their  descendants  ;  the  schism 
made  by  Jeroboam  was  healed,  and  the  remnant  of 
Israel  once  more  acknowledged  the  same  head  as  Judah. 
But  it  was  a  remnant  only ;  the  policy  of  Pekah  had 
resulted  in  the  destruction  not  only  of  himself,  but  also 
of  his  city  and  his  people. 


CHAPTER   V. 

POLITICAL   PARTIES   IN  JUDAH. 

We  have  now  finished  our  survey  of  the  states  and 
powers  by  which  Judah  was  surrounded  in  the  days  of 
Isaiah,  and  of  the  events  which  were  influencing  for  good 
or  for  ill  the  political  fortunes  of  God's  people.  It  is 
time  to  turn  to  Judah  itself,  to  trace  the  effects  of  these 
events  upon  the  prophet's  countrymen,  and  to  see  how, 
under  divine  guidance,  they  were  working  towards  the 
training  and  purification  of  the  Jewish  race. 

The  lifetime  of  Isaiah  witnessed  a  complete  revolution 
in  the  politics  of  Western  Asia,  a  revolution  which 
ushered  in  a  new  world  and  closed  for  ever  the  book  of 
the  past.  During  his  early  years  Western  Asia  was 
still  what  it  had  been  for  unnumbered  centuries — a  col- 
lection of  small  states,  some  of  them  indeed  at  times 
sufficiently  formidable  to  their  neighbours,  but  none  of 
them  powerful  or  ambitious  enough  to  swallow  up  the 
rest.  Then  came  the  rise  of  the  second  Assyrian  empire, 
and  the  new  conception  on  the  part  of  its  founders  of  a 
centralised  power  which  should  rule  supreme  in  the 
civilised  East.  The  greater  part  of  Isaiah's  life  was 
spent  in  watching  the  sure  though  gradual  realisation  of 
this  new  idea.  But  before  his  death  the  check  received 
in  Palestine  by  Sennacherib  introduced  a  change  into 
the  mode  and  method  of  realising  it,  and  obliged  the 
Assyrian  government  to  pause  in  its  career  of  conquest. 
It  became  obvious  that  the  conquered  populations  could 


POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH.  79 

not  be  forced  into  unity;  the  Assyrian  kings  might 
transplant  them  to  other  regions  of  the  empire,  and  fill 
the  thrones  of  their  princes  with  tributary  satraps ;  but 
the  spirit  of  rebellion  and  discontent  still  survived,  and 
the  unity  of  the  empire  was  only  apparent,  not  real. 
Mere  force  could  not  effect  that  imperial  organisation 
which  the  rulers  of  Nineveh  aimed  at,  or  fuse  the  dis- 
united units  into  a  single  whole.  Conquest  must  be 
followed  by  a  policy  of  conciliation,  the  feelings  of  the 
vanquished  must  be  respected,  and  not  trampled  on. 

While,  therefore,  Sargon  and  Sennacherib  were  em- 
ployed in  extending  the  empire  and  carrying  out  the 
dreams  of  Tiglath-pileser  by  brute  force,  it  was  reserved 
for  Esar-haddon  to  consolidate  their  conquests  by  a 
milder  administration  and  fuller  permission  for  the 
development  of  the  national  life.  The  vanquished  nations 
were  no  longer  compelled  to  become  Assyrians  and  to 
acknowledge  Assur  as  their  god  ;  they  were  allowed  to 
retain  their  old  habits  and  customs,  their  old  religion, 
even  their  old  form  of  government.  In  place  of  the 
satraps  the  native  kings  were  allowed  to  preserve  their 
sway  over  the  subject  populations ;  Manasseh  of  Judah 
was  as  much  a  servant  of  'the  great  king'  as  the  Assyrian 
governor  of  Samaria,  but  so  long  as  he  acknowledged 
the  supremacy  of  Nineveh  and  paid  the  annual  tribute 
he  was  allowed  to  govern  his  people  after  the  fashion  of 
his  fathers.  It  was  only  where  the  older  lines  of  rulers 
had  been  replaced  by  satraps  before  the  change  took 
place  in  the  imperial  policy  that  the  order  of  things 
established  by  Sennacherib  and  his  predecessors  con- 
tinued to  prevail;  elsewhere,  in  Judah,  in  Edom,  in  the 
petty  principalities  of  Egypt,  the  government  was  left  in 
the  hands  of  the  native  princes. 


80  POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH. 

Isaiah,  it  is  true,  did  not  live  to  see  this  change  of 
policy  fully  carried  out.  He  died  during  the  short 
breathing-space  that  followed  the  overthrow  of  Senna- 
cherib's army,  while  Judah  again  enjoyed  a  brief  season 
of  independence;  but  he  must  have  foreseen  the  approach- 
ing change,  and  have  recognised  that  here  too  the  safety 
of  Judah  lay,  not  in  revolt  and  foreign  intrigue,  but  in 
quietude  and  submission. 

It  was  natural  that  the  Jewish  statesmen  should  be 
slow  in  understanding  the  profound  change  which 
Tiglath-pileser  and  his  successors  were  effecting  in  the 
condition  and  politics  of  the  Oriental  world.  Assyria 
was  a  country  of  which  they  had  hitherto  heard  little  or 
nothing ;  their  statecraft  had  hitherto  been  exercised  in 
petty  wars  against  the  Philistines  or  the  Edomites,  or 
in  warding  off  an  attack  of  some  Israelitish  king.  How- 
ever much  misery  might  be  inflicted  for  the  moment  by 
the  invasions  of  their  neighbours,  it  soon  passed  away; 
no  attempt  was  made  to  destroy  their  national  existence, 
and  even  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Jehoash1  brought 
with  it  nothing  worse  than  the  plunder  of  the  palace  and 
temple  and  the  destruction  of  a  part  of  the  city  wall. 
Their  own  arms  were  matched  against  those  of  popu- 
lations hardly  more  numerous  or  more  powerful  than 
themselves,  and  the  vicissitudes  of  war  as  often  brought 
them  victory  as  defeat.  The  politics  of  Palestine  were 
necessarily  on  a  small  scale  ;  its  wars  were  petty  and  of 
little  lasting  effect ;  and  the  relations  of  the  several 
states  one  to  another  were  like  those  of  the  Heptarchy 
in  the  earlier  history  of  our  own  country.  The  only 
power  of  magnitude  and  wealth  which  came  within  their 
horizon  was  Egypt ;  and  the  glories  and  might  of  Egypt 

1  2  Kings  xiv.  13,  14. 


POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAII.  8 1 

had  long  become  a  matter  of  tradition  only.  Egypt  was 
an  excellent  neighbour  for  the  purposes  of  trade  ;  its 
unwarlike  population  excited  no  feeling  of  insecurity  in 
the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  of  Palestine. 

The  sudden  rise  and  onward  march  of  Assyria,  accord- 
ingly, came  upon  its  politicians  like  a  thunder-clap. 
Ahaz  and  his  councillors  realised  but  little  what  this 
new  portent  in  Oriental  history  signified.  Had  they 
done  so,  they  would  never  have  rushed,  as  they  did,  into 
the  destroyer's  arms  ;  Syria  and  Ephraim  might  seem 
formidable  for  the  moment,  but  Assyria  was  formidable 
in  the  future.  Isaiah  vainly  endeavoured  to  warn  them 
of  the  perils  they  were  bringing  on  their  country,  but 
they  would  not  listen.  As  yet  the  power  of  Assyria  was 
like  a  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand. 

Hezekiah  inherited  the  results  of  his  father's  policy. 
By  this  time  the  statesmen  of  Palestine  were  fully  awake 
to  the  dangers  by  which  they  were  menaced.  The 
lesson  taught  by  the  overthrow  of  Damascus  and  Samaria, 
of  Arpad  and  Hamath,  was  not  soon  to  be  forgotten. 
But  they  could  not  shake  off  the  influence  of  old  habits 
and  traditions.  In  their  hour  of  need  they  turned  to 
Egypt  for  help.  Like  Assyria,  Egypt  had  revived  under 
an  Ethiopian  king ;  it  was  once  more  a  united  and 
prosperous  power,  and  the  memory  of  a  past  age,  when 
Egypt  was  the  one  great  power  known  to  the  nations  of 
the  East,  produced  an  exaggerated  idea  of  its  strength 
and  importance.  Assyria  might  be  powerful,  but  Egypt, 
it  was  believed,  was  equally  powerful,  and,  if  it  chose  to 
move,  could  drive  the  Assyrian  hordes  back  to  their 
home  beyond  the  Euphrates. 

The  Egyptian  party  was  consequently  numerous  in 
Jerusalem.      They  urged   the   necessity   of  looking   to 

F 


82  POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH. 

Egypt  for  support,  and  of  resisting  the  attack  of  the  Assy- 
rians with  Egyptian  help.  Their  policy,  indeed,  seemed 
at  once  natural  and  patriotic.  Submission  to  Assyria 
meant  not  only  national  degradation,  but  national  anni- 
hilation as  well ;  all  that  the  Rab-shakeh  of  Sennacherib 
could  promise  the  people  of  Jerusalem  if  they  surren- 
dered to  him  was  transportation  to  another  clime.  On 
the  other  hand,  alliance  with  Egypt  would  leave  the 
Jewish  king  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  the  Egyptian 
monarch  ;  the  gifts  carried  by  the  ambassadors  of  Judah 
were  merely  the  customary  offerings  of  one  potentate  to 
another,  and  implied  no  act  of  homage,  no  acknowledg- 
ment of  inferiority.  Moreover,  an  Egyptian  invasion 
was  not  to  be  thought  of ;  the  Egyptians  had  no  desire 
to  absorb  the  territories  of  others,  and  the  Ethiopian 
king  was  fully  occupied  in  maintaining  his  own  authority. 
Without  help,  the  hundreds  of  Judah  must  succumb  to 
the  thousands  of  Assyria ;  the  power  which  had  swept 
away  the  mighty  kingdom  of  Damascus  would  not  be 
turned  back  by  '  the  remnant  of  Zion.' 

The  leader  of  the  Egyptian  party  seems  to  have  been 
Shebna.  From  the  termination  of  his  name,  we  may 
infer  that  he  was  of  Syrian  descent,  a  fact  which  gives 
point  to  Isaiah's  denunciation  of  the  arrogant  stranger 
who  had  dared  to  hew  his  sepulchre  out  of  the  cliffs 
reserved  for  the  royal  lineage  of  David * : — 

Thus  saith  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts,  Go,  get  thee  unto  this 
treasurer,  even  unto  Shebna,  which  is  over  the  house,  and  say,  What 
doest  thou  here  ?  and  whom  hast  thou  here,  that  thou  hast  hewed 
thee  out  here  a  sepulchre  ?  hewing  him  out  a  sepulchre  on  high, 
graving  an  habitation  for  himself  in  the  rock  !  Behold,  the  Lord 
will  hurl  thee  away  violently  as  a  strong  man ;  yea,  He  will  wrap 

1  Isa.  xxii.  15-25. 


POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH.  83 

thee  up  closely.  He  will  surely  turn  and  toss  thee  like  a  ball  into  a 
large  country ;  there  shalt  thou  die,  and  there  shall  be  the  chariots 
of  thy  glory,  thou  shame  of  thy  lord's  house.  And  I  will  thrust 
thee  from  thine  office,  and  from  thy  station  shall  He  pull  thee  down. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  I  will  call  My  servant 
Eliakim  the  son  of  Hilkiah  :  and  I  will  clothe  him  with  thy  robe, 
and  strengthen  him  with  thy  girdle,  and  I  will  commit  thy  govern- 
ment into  his  hand :  and  he  shall  be  a  father  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem,  and  to  the  house  of  Judah.  And  the  key  of  the  house 
of  David  will  I  lay  upon  his  shoulder  ;  and  he  shall  open,  and  none 
shall  shut ;  and  he  shall  shut,  and  none  shall  open.  And  I  will 
fasten  him  as  a  nail  in  a  sure  place ;  and  he  shall  be  for  a  throne  of 
glory  to  his  father's  house.  And  they  shall  hang  upon  him  all  the 
glory  of  his  father's  house,  the  offspring  and  the  issue,  every  small 
vessel,  from  the  vessels  of  cups  even  to  all  the  vessels  of  flagons. 
In  that  day,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  shall  the  nail  that  was  fastened 
in  a  sure  place  give  way ;  and  it  shall  be  hewn  down,  and  fall,  and 
the  burden  that  was  upon  it  shall  be  cut  off;  for  the  Lord  hath 
spoken  it. 

This  is  the  only  case  in  which  the  prophet  utters  a 
prophecy  against  an  individual ;  but  Shebna  represented 
a  party  and  a  policy,  and  in  predicting  the  fate  of  the 
leader,  Isaiah  predicted  also  the  fate  of  the  policy. 
During  a  considerable  part  of  Hezekiah's  reign  the  king 
shared  the  views  of  Shebna,  who  accordingly  governed 
in  his  name.  As  in  modern  Turkey,  the  removal  of 
the  vizier  indicated  a  change  in  the  policy  of  the  king ; 
when  Shebna  was  replaced  by  Eliakim,  it  meant  that 
the  policy  identified  with  the  name  of  Shebna  had  been 
forsaken  by  Hezekiah.  Eliakim,  we  may  gather  from 
the  words  of  Isaiah,  was  a  God-fearing  man,  willing  to 
hearken  to  the  prophet's  advice  and  warning.  Already, 
when  the  Rab-shakeh  appeared  before  Jerusalem,  we  find 
that  Shebna  had  been  overthrown  ;  Eliakim  had  been 
raised   to  the  viziership,  and  Shebna  degraded  to  the 

F  2 


84  POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH. 

position  of  scribe.  It  may  be  that  the  approach  of 
Sennacherib,  unimpeded  by  the  armies  of  Egypt,  had 
opened  the  eyes  of  Hezekiah  ;  at  all  events,  from  hence- 
forth the  policy  of  those  who  urged  alliance  and  union 
with  the  bruised  reed  of  Egypt  received  no  more 
countenance  from  the  Jewish  king. 

Opposed  to  the  Egyptian  was  the  Assyrian  party, 
which  advocated  submission  to  the  all-powerful  empire 
of  Assyria.  It  may  be  questioned  whether  the  party 
was  ever  a  very  large  one ;  certainly  it  never  appears  to 
have  influenced  the  policy  of  the  government  after 
the  death  of  Ahaz.  Doubtless  its  partisans  had  been 
active  and  sufficiently  numerous  during  the  reign  of 
a  king  whose  policy  had  been  shaped  by  their  coun- 
sels ;  but  events  had  shaken  its  influence,  and  it  is 
probable  that  it  numbered  but  few  adherents  after 
the  fall  of  Samaria.  A  patriotic  Jew,  in  fact,  could 
hardly  advise  his  countrymen  to  take  upon  their  necks 
the  yoke  of  Assyria  without,  at  least,  making  some 
struggle  for  independence.  The  empire  of  Assyria 
was  not  yet  sufficiently  consolidated  in  the  West  for 
such  a  struggle  to  seem  altogether  hopeless.  As  soon 
as  it  was  discovered  that  submission  to  Assyria  meant 
the  loss  of  national  freedom,  its  advocates  must  have 
become  fewer  and  fewer,  until  at  last  they  all  dwindled 
away.  Though  the  Rab-shakeh  of  Sennacherib  addressed 
the  people  of  Jerusalem  in  their  own  language,  at  a  time 
when  the  condition  of  the  kingdom  appeared  wellnigh 
desperate,  there  was  none  found  among  them  to  answer 
him  a  word.  There  was  none  who  proposed  surrender ; 
all  were  willing  to  resist  the  invader  up  to  the  last. 

A  third  party,  which  we  may  call  national,  was  headed 
by  Isaiah.     It  drew  its  policy  and  its  existence  from  the 


POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH.  85 

words  of  Divine  counsel  which  the  prophet  uttered,  and 
the  message  he  was  commissioned  to  deliver.  Its 
watchword  was  ' quietness  and  rest';  'in  returning  and 
rest  shall  ye  be  saved,  in  quietness  and  confidence  shall 
be  your  strength  V  It  was  a  policy  of  non-intervention, 
that  was  opposed  to  an  alliance  with  Assyria  or  Egypt ; 
Judah  had  gained  nothing  but  evil  from  intermeddling 
with  the  politics  of  its  heathen  neighbours,  its  religion 
and  morality  had  been  corrupted,  and  calamity  after 
calamity  had  fallen  on  the  nation.  God  had  marked  it 
out  as  '  a  peculiar  people,'  and  its  safety  lay  in  the 
national  recognition  of  the  fact.  It  was  He  who  had 
permitted  the  Assyrian  to  be  the  rod  of  His  anger,  and 
had  allowed  him  to  chastise  and  chasten  the  sins  of  His 
people;  but  the  chastisement  was  not  to  be  utter  de- 
struction, and  a  bound  had  been  set  beyond  which  the 
violence  of  the  invader  was  not  to  go.  A  remnant  was 
yet  to  escape  from  Zion,  and  the  Assyrian  should  be 
beaten  down  '  which  smote  with  a  rod  V 

Isaiah  preached  for  long  to  deaf  ears.  Ahaz  turned 
for  help  to  the  Assyrian,  Hezekiah  to  the  Egyptian. 
King  and  people  alike  could  not  believe  that  the  Lord 
would  interfere  on  behalf  of  His  city,  and  overthrow  the 
foe  in  the  very  moment  of  his  success.  Hezekiah  might 
accept  the  rebuke  of  the  prophet  for  his  pride  of  heart  in 
showing  the  ambassadors  of  Babylon  the  treasures  of  his 
house,  but  he  did  not  forsake  the  policy  he  was  fol- 
lowing, and  cease  to  plot  with  Egypt  and  Babylonia 
against  the  Assyrian  king.  Even  the  conquest  of 
Judah  by  Sargon  did  not  open  the  eyes  of  the  king  and 
his  councillors.  Their  envoys  made  their  way  up  the 
Nile  to  arrange  fresh  alliances  with  the  Ethiopian  ruler 
1  Isa.  xxx.  15.  2  Isa.  x.  21,  24,  27. 


86  POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH. 

of  Egypt,  and  Judah  placed  herself  at  the  head  of  a 
league  which  comprised  all  the  states  of  the  West.  It 
needed  the  campaign  of  Sennacherib  and  the  signal 
deliverance  of  Jerusalem  from  the  victorious  enemy  to 
convince  Hezekiah  that  Egypt  should  indeed  'help  in 
vain,'  and  that  the  true  policy  of  himself  and  his  country 
was  that  which  had  so  long  been  pressed  upon  them  by 
Isaiah.  If  he  and  his  people  would  trust  in  the  Lord, 
and  abstain  from  all  intrigues  with  foreign  powers,  they 
might  rest  in  peace  and  safety,  for  the  Lord  Himself 
would  defend  them  in  the  hour  of  need. 

After  the  rise  of  the  second  Assyrian  empire,  there- 
fore, and  the  changed  conditions  it  introduced  into  the 
politics  of  Western  Asia,  three  parties  formed  themselves 
in  Judah,  each  of  which  directed  in  succession  the  affairs 
of  the  kingdom.  The  pressure  of  the  Syro-Ephraimitic 
war  created  the  Assyrian  party,  and  led  to  its  predo- 
minance throughout  the  reign  of  Ahaz.  The  overthrow 
of  Samaria,  which  brought  Judah  and  Assyria  into  imme- 
diate contact,  as  well  as  the  growing  fear  of  the  power  of 
Nineveh,  caused  this  party  to  fall  with  the  death  of  the 
king.  Hezekiah  and  his  advisers  now  threw  themselves 
into  the  hands  of  the  Egyptian  party,  whose  leader  we 
may  see  in  Shebna.  Its  influence  was  marked  by  revolt 
from  Assyria,  by  alliance  with  Egypt,  and  by  attempts 
to  create  a  league  against  the  Assyrians  among  the 
neighbouring  states.  The  cities  of  the  Philistines, 
forming  as  they  did  a  link  between  Egypt  and  Judah, 
assumed  increased  importance;  the  old  suzerainty  which 
the  Jewish  kings  claimed  over  them  was  asserted  more 
forcibly  than  before,  and  their  princes  were  made  and  un- 
made in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  Jewish  policy. 
The  defeat  of  Tirhakah  at  Eltckeh  shattered  the  power 


POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH.  87 

of  the  Egyptian  party ;  Shebna  was  succeeded  as  vizier 
by  Eliakim,  and  the  views  and  teachings  of  Isaiah  were 
at  last  allowed  to  prevail.  For  the  rest  of  Hezekiah's 
life  Isaiah  was  his  political  as  well  as  his  religious  coun- 
sellor ;  the  lesson  taught  by  the  terrible  invasion  of  Sen- 
nacherib was  never  forgotten.  And  though  with  the 
death  of  Hezekiah  evil  days  came  again  upon  Judah — 
days  which,  we  may  gather,  Isaiah  was  privileged  never 
to  see — the  effect  of  the  prophet's  policy  continued  to  be 
felt.  The  house  of  David  and  the  national  existence  of 
the  people  over  whom  it  ruled  were  preserved  until  a 
new  king  arose  in  Assyria  and  inaugurated  new  principles 
of  government.  The  temple  and  kingdom  of  Jerusalem 
were  saved  till  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  chosen  people  to 
pass  through  the  fiery  ordeal  of  the  Babylonish  exile. 

The  political  revolution  of  which  the  Oriental  world 
was  the  scene  during  the  lifetime  of  Isaiah  could  not  be 
without  its  influence  on  the  life  and  thoughts  of  the 
Jewish  people.  To  the  intercourse  of  Ahaz  with  Tiglath- 
pileser  we  must  trace  the  introduction  of  Babylonian 
science  into  Jerusalem  and  the  literary  revival  that 
distinguished  his  son's  reign.  As  we  have  seen,  the  sun- 
dial of  Ahaz  is  an  unmistakable  illustration  of  Babylonian 
influence,  like  the  library  which  we  find  existing  in  the 
days  of  Hezekiah  in  imitation  of  the  libraries  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Nineveh.  The  enlarged  political  horizon, 
moreover,  brought  with  it  new  knowledge  and  new 
interests.  Judah  ceased  to  be  one  out  of  many  small  and 
unimportant  states ;  it  became  the  centre  around  which 
for  several  years  the  fate  of  Western  Asia  seemed  to 
turn,  the  battle-ground  between  the  two  great  powers 
which  represented  the  present  and  the  past.  Perforce, 
therefore,  its  inhabitants  were  compelled  to  understand 


88  POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH. 

and  follow  the  fortunes  of  their  neighbours  from  the 
Tigris  to  the  Nile,  and  to  know  as  much  about  Babylon 
or  Ethiopia  as  they  had  once  known  about  Edom  and 
Damascus.  The  results  of  this  enlargement  of  the 
political  sphere  showed  itself  in  many  ways.  Jerusalem 
became  a  fortress  the  walls  of  which  needed  to  be 
strengthened  with  all  the  engineering  skill  of  the  day. 
The  Assyrian  enemy  it  was  called  upon  to  resist  was  a 
very  different  one  from  the  Samaritan  king  who  had 
once  penetrated  within  it1.  But  it  is  more  particularly 
in  the  domain  of  prophecy  that  we  see  the  influence  of 
the  new  order  of  things.  In  the  hands  of  Isaiah  and  his 
contemporaries  prophecy  becomes  universal,  extending 
its  range  of  vision  far  beyond  the  narrow  boundaries  of 
the  Israelitish  tribes.  It  is  not  only  Jerusalem  or 
Samaria  upon  which  'the  burden'  of  the  prophetic  vision 
falls  ;  Egypt,  Assyria,  Ethiopia,  even  Babylon  and  the 
distant  Elam  come  within  its  scope.  Their  fortunes  are 
now  intimately  bound  up  with  those  of  God's  people  ;  if 
Israel  is  God's  inheritance,  Egypt  is  His  people,  and 
Assyria  the  work  of  His  hands  2. 

The  position  occupied  by  Isaiah  was  necessitated  by 
the  age  to  which  he  belonged.  The  message  he  com- 
municated was  in  accordance  with  the  conditions  of  his 
time.  Hence  arises  the  striking  contrast  between  the 
policy  of  which  he  was  the  mouthpiece,  and  that  which 
Jeremiah  was  called  upon  to  urge.  While  Isaiah  advo- 
cated resistance  to  the  invader,  in  confident  security  that 
God  would  defend  His  temple  and  city,  Jeremiah 
declared  that  no  buildings  made  with  hands  could  save 
the  people,  and  that  submission  to  the  Chaldean  was 
their  only  hope  of  safety.    Isaiah,  in  other  words,  was  the 

1  2  Kings  xiv.  13.  3  Is.  xix.  25. 


POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH.  89 

prophet  of  national  independence,  Jeremiah  of  national 
subjection.  But  between  the  time  of  Isaiah  and 
that  of  Jeremiah  a  total  change  had  come  over  the  face 
of  the  Eastern  world.  Nebuchadnezzar  was  a  more 
dangerous  enemy  than  Sennacherib ;  Egypt  had  risen 
afresh  from  its  ashes,  and  was  prepared  to  reassert  its 
ancient  rule  over  Palestine,  and  Judah  itself  had  sunk  into 
the  deepest  degradation  and  decay.  Its  princes  were 
idolatrous  and  corrupt,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  himself  was 
a  more  reverent  observer  of  the  moral  law  than  they. 
The  measure  of  Judah's  iniquities  was  full ;  the  period 
of  God's  longsuffering  had  drawn  to  a  close,  and  there 
was  no  king  on  the  throne  like  Hezekiah  to  follow 
loyally  the  teachings  of  the  prophet,  no  minister  like 
Eliakim  to  carry  them  out.  The  Lord  would  fight  no 
longer  for  His  city  and  the  earthly  throne  of  David  ; 
His  people  were  to  be  disciplined  by  suffering,  and  to  be 
taught  that  the  Most  High  dwelleth  not  in  temples 
made  with  hands,  but  requires  truth  and  uprightness,  not 
correctness  of  ritual  or  stately  shrines. 

Had  the  kingdom  of  Judah  been  swept  away  by  the 
Assyrian  kings,  like  the  kingdom  of  Samaria,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  there  would  have  been  any  '  remnant ' 
to  return  to  it  again.  It  needed  another  century  to  pro- 
duce in  Judah  a  body  of  men  sufficiently  numerous  and 
faithful  to  the  God  of  their  fathers  to  withstand  the 
allurements  of  the  idolatry  around  them.  When 
Sennacherib  threatened  Jerusalem,  the  reforms  of 
Hezekiah  were  but  just  accomplished,  the  more  far- 
reaching  reformation  of  Josiah  had  not  taken  place. 
The  Jewish  people  had  but  just  ceased  to  burn  incense 
in  the  temple  itself  to  the  brazen  serpent  of  Moses1,  the 

1  2  Kings  xviii.  4. 


90  POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH. 

high-places  were  still  frequented  by  those  who  believed 
themselves  the  true  worshippers  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
Assyrian  envoy  could  appeal .  to  the  indignation  and 
resentment  which  the  destruction  of  these  ancient  sanc- 
tuaries by  Hezekiah  had  aroused  in  the  hearts  of  his 
subjects  l.  Literature  and  education  were  taking  a  new 
start,  the  utterances  of  the  prophets  were  but  just  begin- 
ning to  be  written  down,  and  so  preserved  as  a  testimony 
for  ever,  and  the  religious  ignorance  even  of  the  priests 
may  be  judged  of  by  the  fact  that  the  book  of  the  Law 
was  not  found  in  the  temple  until  the  reign  of  Josiah. 
The  religious  training  of  the  chosen  people  was  still  in- 
complete ;  a  few  good  men  might  have  kept  the  light  of 
truth  burning  in  the  land  of  their  captivity  for  a  time, 
but  as  they  passed  away  the  whole  body  of  the  exiles 
would  have  been  merged  as  completely  in  the  nations 
among  whom  they  lived  as  were  the  captive  Israelites. 
Nor  would  the  Assyrian  Exile  have  had  a  speedy  ending, 
like  the  Babylonian  Exile.  Instead  of  seventy  years,  it 
would  have  been  nearly  two  centuries  before  the  captives 
would  have  been  released  from  their  house  of  bondage ; 
when  Nineveh  fell,  there  was  no  Cyrus  to  restore  its 
prisoners  to  their  old  homes. 

The  policy,  then,  which  Isaiah  was  empowered  to 
press  upon  his  countrymen,  the  promises  he  was  com- 
missioned to  hold  out,  were  adapted  to  other  circum- 
stances and  other  needs  than  those  which  confronted 
Jeremiah.  The  object  and  end  of  both  prophets  was  the 
same,  but  the  means  for  effecting  the  end  were  necessarily 
different.  Jeremiah  lived  when  the  old  national  inde- 
pendence with  its  Oriental  court  and  foreign  alliances 
had  ceased  to  be  possible  or  desirable ;  Isaiah's  lot  was 

1  2  Kings  xviii.  22. 


POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  JUDAH.  9 1 

cast  in  a  happier  age,  when  the  safe-keeping  of  Jerusalem 
was  needful  to  the  divine  education  of  the  people  of  the 
Lord.  He  had  the  privilege  of  leading  the  national 
struggle  against  foreign  oppression  and  heathen  arro- 
gance, of  promising  success  to  his  countrymen  in  their 
supreme  hour  of  peril,  and  of  seeing  that  promise  ful- 
filled. The  hosts  of  the  Assyrian,  which  none  had  yet 
been  able  to  resist,  were  shattered  against  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  and  Isaiah's  had  been  the  voice  of  the  herald 
which  announced  the  doom  of  the  enemies  of  Israel. 


APPENDIX. 
I. 

FROM  THE  FRAGMENTS  OF  TIGLATH-PILESER'S  ANNALS. 

'The  towns  of  Gil(ead)  and  Abel-(beth-Maachah)  in  the  pro- 
vinces of  Beth-Omri  [Samaria],  the  widespread  (district  of  Naph- 
ta)li  to  its  whole  extent  I  turned  into  the  territory  of  Assyria.  My 
(governors)  and  officers  I  appointed  (over  them).  Khanun  of 
Gaza,  who  had  fled  before  my  weapons,  escaped  (to  the  land)  of 
Egypt.  The  city  of  Gaza  (his  royal  city  I  captured.  Its  spoils 
and)  its  gods  (I  carried  away.  My  name)  and  the  image  of  my 
majesty  (I  set  up)  in  the  midst  of  the  temple  of .  .  .  The  gods 
of  their  land  I  counted  (as  a  spoil).  .  .  To  his  land  I  restored  him 
and  (imposed  tribute  upon  him.  Gold),  silver,  garments  of  damask 
and  linen  (along  with  other  objects)  I  received.  The  land  of  Beth- 
Omri  (I  overran).  A  selection  of  its  inhabitants  (with  their  goods) 
I  transported  to  Assyria.  Pekah  their  king  I  put  to  death,  and 
I  appointed  Hoshea  to  the  sovereignty  over  them.  Ten  (talents  of 
gold,  .  .  .  talents  of  silver  as)  their  tribute  I  received,  and  I  trans- 
ported them  to  Assyria.' 

II. 

FROM  THE  INSCRIPTIONS  OF  SARGON. 

I.  '  (In  the  beginning  of  my  reign)  the  city  of  Samaria  I  besieged, 
I  captured  ;  27,280  of  its  inhabitants  I  carried  away ;  fifty  chariots 
in  the  midst  of  them  I  collected,  and  the  rest  of  their  goods  I 
seized  ;  I  set  my  governor  over  them  and  laid  upon  them  the 
tribute  of  the  former  king  (Hoshea).' 

II.  '(In  my  ninth  expedition  and  eleventh  year)  the  people  of 
the  Philistines,  Judah,  Edom,  and  Moab,  who  dwell  by  the  sea, 
who  owed  tribute  and  presents  to  Assur  my  lord,  plotted  rebellion, 
men  of  insolence,  who  in  order  to  revolt  against  me  carried  their 


APPENDIX.  93 

bribes  for  alliance  to  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt,  a  prince  who  could 
not  save  them,  and  sent  him  homage.  I,  Sargon,  the  established 
prince,  the  reverer  of  the  worship  of  Assur  and  Merodach,  the 
protector  of  the  renown  of  Assur,  caused  the  warriors  who  belonged 
to  me  entirely  to  pass  the  rivers  Tigris  and  Euphrates  during  full 
flood,  and  that  same  Yavan  (of  Ashdod)  their  king,  who  trusted  in 
his  (forces)  and  did  not  (reverence)  my  sovereignty,  heard  of  the 
progress  of  my  expedition  to  the  land  of  the  Hittites  (Syria),  and 
the  fear  of  (Assur)  my  (lord)  overwhelmed  him,  and  to  the  borders 
of  Egypt ...  he  fled  away.' 

III. 

SENNACHERIB'S  ACCOUNT  OF  HIS  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST 

JUDAH. 

'Zedekiah,  king  of  Ashkelon,  who  had  not  submitted  to  my 
yoke,  himself,  the  gods  of  the  house  of  his  fathers,  his  wife,  his  sons, 
his  daughters  and  his  brothers,  the  seed  of  the  house  of  his  fathers, 
I  removed,  and  I  sent  him  to  Assyria.  I  set  over  the  men  of 
Ashkelon  Sarludari,  the  son  of  Rukipti,  their  former  king,  and 
I  imposed  upon  him  the  payment  of  tribute,  and  the  homage  due 
to  my  majesty,  and  he  became  a  vassal.  In  the  course  of  my 
campaign  I  approached  and  captured  Beth-Dagon,  Joppa,  Bene- 
berak  and  Azur,  the  cities  of  Zedekiah,  which  did  not  submit  at 
once  to  my  yoke,  and  I  carried  away  their  spoil.  The  priests,  the 
chief  men  and  the  common  people  of  Ekron,  who  had  thrown  into 
chains  their  king,  Padi,  because  he  was  faithful  to  his  oaths  to 
Assyria,  and  had  given  him  up  to  Hezekiah,  the  Jew,  who  im- 
prisoned him  in  hostile  fashion  in  a  dark  dungeon,  feared  in  their 
hearts.  The  king  of  Egypt,  the  bowmen,  the  chariots  and  the 
horses  of  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  had  gathered  together  innumerable 
forces  and  gone  to  their  assistance.  In  sight  of  the  town  of 
Eltekeh  was  their  order  of  battle  drawn  up  ;  they  summoned  their 
troops  (to  the  battle).  Trusting  in  Assur,  my  lord,  I  fought  with 
them  and  overthrew  them.  My  hands  took  the  captains  of  the 
chariots  and  the  sons  of  the  king  of  Egypt,  as  well  as  the  captains 
of  the  chariots  of  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  alive  in  the  midst  of  the  battle. 
I  approached  and  captured  the  towns  of  Eltekeh  and  Timnath,  and  I 
carried  away  their  spoil.     I  marched  against  the  city  of  Ekron,  and 


94  APPENDIX. 

put  to  death  the  priests  and  the  chief  men  who  had  committed  the 
sin  (of  rebellion),  and  I  hung  up  their  bodies  on  stakes  all  round 
the  city.  The  citizens  who  had  done  wrong  and  wickedness  I 
counted  as  spoil ;  as  for  the  rest  of  them  who  had  committed  no 
sin  or  crime,  in  whom  no  fault  was  found,  I  proclaimed  their 
freedom  (from  punishment).  I  had  Padi,  their  king,  brought  out 
from  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  I  seated  him  on  the  throne  of 
royalty  over  them,  and  I  laid  upon  him  the  tribute  due  to  my 
majesty.  But  as  for  Hezekiah  of  Judah,  who  had  not  submitted  to 
my  yoke,  forty-six  of  his  strong  cities,  together  with  innumerable 
fortresses  and  small  towns  which  depended  on  them,  by  over- 
throwing the  walls  and  open  attack,  by  battle,  engines  and  batter- 
ing-rams I  besieged,  I  captured.  I  brought  out  from  the  midst  of 
them  and  counted  as  a  spoil  200,150  persons,  great  and  small, 
male  and  female,  horses,  mules,  asses,  camels,  oxen  and  sheep 
without  number.  Hezekiah  himself  I  shut  up  like  a  bird  in  a  cage 
in  Jerusalem,  his  royal  city.  I  built  a  line  of  forts  against  him, 
and  I  kept  back  his  heel  from  going  forth  out  of  the  great  gate 
of  his  city.  I  cut  off  the  cities  which  I  had  spoiled  from  the  midst 
of  his  land,  and  gave  them  to  Metinti,  king  of  Ashdod,  Padi,  king 
of  Ekron,  and  Zil-baal,  king  of  Gaza,  and  I  made  his  country 
small.  In  addition  to  their  former  tribute  and  yearly  gifts  I  added 
other  tribute  and  the  homage  due  to  my  majesty,  and  I  laid  it  upon 
them.  The  fear  of  the  greatness  of  my  majesty  overwhelmed  him, 
even  Hezekiah,  and  he  sent  after  me  to  Nineveh,  my  royal  city,  by 
way  of  gift  and  tribute,  the  Arabs  (Urbi)  and  his  body-guard 
whom  he  had  brought  for  the  defence  of  Jerusalem,  his  royal  city, 
and  had  furnished  with  pay,  along  with  thirty  talents  of  gold,  800 
talents  of  pure  silver,  carbuncles  and  other  precious  stones,  a  couch 
of  ivory,  thrones  of  ivory,  an  elephant's  hide,  an  elephant's  tusk, 
rare  woods  of  various  names,  a  vast  treasure,  as  well  as  the  eunuchs 
of  his  palace,  dancing  men  and  dancing  women  ;  and  he  sent  his 
ambassador  to  offer  homage.' 


INDEX. 


Ahaz,  reign  of,  43,  72  ;  his  policy,  44  ; 
appeals  to  Tiglath,  44  ;  his  idola- 
trous altar,  47  ;  position  of,  74  ; 
rejects  Isaiah's  advice,  75. 

Assyria,  rise  of,  25  ;  Hezekiah's  revolt 
against,  30 ;  Sennacherib  invades 
Palestine,  30 ;  slaughter  of  host 
before  Jerusalem,  32  ;  reign  of 
Esar-haddon,  34  ;  invades  Egypt, 
34,  65  ;  triumphs  of,  35  ;  her 
position  at  birth  of  Isaiah,  40  ;  her 
first  contact  with  Judah,  42  ;  learn- 
ing of,  48  ;  reign  of  Shalmaneser 
IV,  48  ;  of  Sargon,  49  ;  conquers 
Babylon,  50,  61  ;  reign  of  Sennach- 
erib, 61  ;  revolt  against,  61. 

Babylon,  conquered  by  Assyria,  50 ; 
again  taken  by  Sargon,  61. 

Carchemish,  fall  of,  52. 

Damascus,  siege  of,  by  Tiglath,  45  ; 
surrender  of,  47. 

Egypt,  her  position  in  the  time  of 
Isaiah,  20 ;  dynasty  of  Shishak  I, 
22  ;  victories  of  Sabako,  22  ;  king- 
dom of  Meroe  founded,  23  ;  reign 
of  Tirhakah,  25  ;  defeat  at  Eltekeh, 
31  ;  Sethos  legend,  32  ;  invaded  by 
Esar-haddon,  34  ;  reign  of  Rut- 
Amun,  35  ;  disasters  of,  35,  66. 

Eliakim,  policy  of,  83. 

Eltekeh,  battle  of,  31. 

Esar-haddon,  reign  of,  34  ;  his  con- 
quests, 35,  64  ;  his  policy,  79. 

Hamath  conquered  byTiglath-pileser, 
42  ;   revolt  of,  51. 

Herodotus,  quotes  Sethos  legend,  32. 

Hezekiah,  extracts  from  his  history 
given  by  Isaiah,  20 ;  sends  am- 
bassadors to  Egypt,  29  ;  revolts 
against  Assyria,  30,  62  ;  delivered 
from  Sennacherib,  31  ;  his  death, 
33  ;  receives    Babylonish  ambassa- 


dors, 53 ;  treats  with  Sennacherib, 
62. 
Hoshea,  rebellion  of,  48  ;  defeat  of,  76. 

Isaiah,  scope  of  his  prophecies,  13  ; 
his  position,  13,  88  ;  his  lot  and 
influence,  15;  meaning  of  his  name, 
16  ;  his  children,  16  ;  his  wife,  17  ; 
his  death,  17  ;  duration  of  his 
ministry,  18  ;  analysis  of  his  pro- 
phecies, 18  ;  historical  quotations 
of,  20 ;  his  times  described,  21 ; 
triumph  of  his  policy,  39  ;  his 
prophecy  to  Ahaz,  44 ;  his  rebuke 
to  Hezekiah,  54  ;  his  prophecy 
against  Shebna,  82. 

Israel,  dynasties  of,  68  ;  character  of 
kingdom,  68. 

Jeremiah,  his  position  contrasted 
with  Isaiah,  89. 

Jerusalem,  position  of,  25  ;  besieged 
by  Sennacherib,  31  ;  iniquity  of, 
60  ;  taken  by  Sargon,  60. 

Jotham,  policy  of,  72. 

Judah,  position  of,  26  ;  policy  of,  38  ; 
her  first  contact  with  Assyria,  42  ; 
her  relations  with  Hamath,  42 ; 
loyal  to  Ahaz,  43  ;  ravaged  by 
Sennacherib,  62  ;  history  of,  com- 
pared with  Israel,  70  ;  revolt  in, 
72  ;  politics  of,  80  ;  Egyptian  party 
in,  81  ;  Assyrian  party  in,  84 ; 
national  party  in,  84 ;  Babylonian 
influence  in,  87  ;  condition  of 
people  of,  89. 

Manasseh,    reign    of,    33  ;    becomes 

tributary  to  Assyria,  34. 
Merodach-baladan,     policy     of,    53  ; 

sends   amdassadors    to    Hezekiah, 

S3  ;  defeated  by  Sargon,  61. 
Meroe,  foundation  of,  23. 
Pekah,  reign  of,  43  ;    defeat  of,   46, 

death  of,  y6. 
Philistines,     defeated     by     Tiglath- 

pileser,  46. 


96 


INDEX. 


Rezon,  reign  of,  43  ;  defeat  of,  45. 
Rut-Amun,  reign  of,  35. 

Sabako,  victories  of,  22. 

Samaria  overrun  by  Tiglath-pileser, 
46  ;  fall  of,  49,  76. 

Sargon,  conquers  Samaria,  49  ;  reign 
of,  50  ;  defeats  Hamath,  52  ;  takes 
Carchemish,  52  ;  victories  of,  55  ; 
takes  Jerusalem,  60  ;  conquers 
Babylon,  61  ;  murder  of,  61. 

Sennacherib  invades  Palestine,  30 ; 
reign  of,  61  ;  conquests  of,  62  ; 
before  Jerusalem,  31,  62  ;  slaughter 
of  his  host,  64  ;  his  death,  64. 

Sethos  legend,  the,  32. 

Shalmaneser  IV,  reign  of,  48. 


Shebna,  policy  of,   82  ;   Isaiah's  pro- 
phecy against,  82. 
Shishak  I,  conquests  of,  22. 
Syria,  policy  of,  67  ;  extinction  of,  75. 

Tabeel,  a  usurper,  43. 

Thebes,  destruction  of,  35. 

Tiglath-pileser  III,  reign  of,  40  ;  over- 
runs Palestine  and  Syria,  45,  75  ; 
death  of,  48  ;  policy  of,  48  ;  con- 
quers Babylon,  50. 

Tirhakah,  reign  of,  25  ;  defeated  at 
Eltekeh,  31  ;  inscription  of,  35  ; 
triumph  and  death  of,  35. 

Uzziah,  king  of  Judah,  71. 

Yahu-bihdi,  king  of  Hamath,  51. 


LIST    OF    SCRIPTURE    REFERENCES. 


1  KINGS. 


x\.  23  . 
xiv.  13 . 
xiv.  25 
xvii.  4  . 
xx.  34. 


2  KINGS, 


xiv.  13,  14 
xiv.  28 
xv.  29  . 
xv.  30  . 
xvi.  6  . 
xvi.  7  . 
xvi.  9  . 
xvii.  10-16 
xviii.  4 
xviii.  13 
xviii.  22 
xx.  4    . 


68 
88 
22 
22 

67 

80 

42 

45 
46 

44 
44 
47 
47 
90 
60 
90 
16 


1  CHRONICLES. 
xviii.  9      ....     68 

2  CHRONICLES. 
ii.  11 68 

xxviii.  17,  18  .  44,  46 
xxx.  xxxi.  .  .  50,  69 
xxxii.  32  .  .  .  .  15 
xxxiii.  11-13.     .     .     65 


EZRA. 
iv.  2,  10   .    .     .    .76 

PSALM. 

xc 18 

PROVERBS. 

XXV.  1 48 

ISAIAH. 

ii.  2 19 

iii.  12 72 

vi.  1 18 

vi.  13 16 

vii 44 

vii.  3 17 

vii.  6    .     .     .     .   43,  73 

vii.  9 74 

viii.  1 17 

viii.  6  .     .     .     .   43,  73 

viii.  18      ....  16 

x 55 

x.  20-22  ....  16 

x.  21,  24,27.     .     .  85 

xi 55 

xi.  11 32 

xii.  2 16 

xviii 26 

xviii.  2      ....  29 

xix 36 

xix.  7 66 

xix.  25      ....  88 


55 

xx.  4,  5     .     .     . 

• 

24 

xxn 

. 

59 

xxn.  15-25     .     . 

. 

82 

XXVI.   I         .       .       . 

. 

16 

XXVlll-XXXUl. 

. 

19 

xxx 

. 

26 

xxx.  7 .     .     .     . 

. 

39 

xxx.  15     .     .15 

39 

«S 

XXXV1-XXX1X. 

. 

19 

XXXVI.    I      .       .       . 

• 

60 

xxxvi.  6    .     .     . 

. 

23 

23 

xxxvn.  25       .     . 

. 

32 

xxxvn.  32       .     . 

. 

3i 

xxxvn.  33 

. 

63 

xxxviii.  8  .     .     . 

. 

47 

xxxix 

• 

53 

HOSEA 

111.  5     .     .     .     . 

71 

7i 

AMOS. 

iii.  12  ...     . 

• 

67 

vu.  14,  15      .     . 

• 

14 

MIC  AH 

IV.  1      ... 

* 

19 

LUKE. 

69 

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